"It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend." (Conrad 105).
Joseph Conrad wrote a book which categorizes Africa as a "otherworldly" place and even explicitly refers to the native Africans as "savages" and characterizes them as mostly inhuman and animal. Marlow does not feel connected to his fellow Europeans in the Congo, but he cannot see the Africans as his equals. This passage characterizes Marlow's attitude of disdain and separateness towards the natives.
As Marlow travels up the river, he catches brief glimpses of some native villages. He recognizes that the men have human qualities and sees that "they were not inhuman". The idea that they might not be inhuman is horrible to Marlow. First of all, he most likely recognizes the way they have been abused and mistreated, which doesn't seem so bad to him if they're not human, but if they were human, it would be horrific and cruel. Not only that, but if the natives are human like him, Marlow would have to acknowledge that he has some sort of kinship with them. While talking about the possibility of their humanity, he simultaneously dehumanizes them by describing how they "howled and leaped" painting a picture of them as animals. Then, he describes the idea of his "remote kinship" to them as "ugly". The language Conrad uses in this section clearly shows that the natives are categorized as "others" and cannot be compared to Marlow and the other Europeans.
The passage also discusses Marlow's idea that if you were to feel any sort of real connection to the people he has clearly described as animal-like savages, that would mean that you would revert back to being wild. Marlow says that you would revert back to the "night of first ages". This casts the Africans as primitive versions of Marlow and the Europeans who can never be equal to them. In his mind, the Europeans can revert back to this primitive state, but he never mentions any possibility of an African becoming "civilized". This passage is inherently racist because of the way if claims that the Africans will never be equal to the Europeans.
The language Conrad uses in Heart of Darkness dehumanizes the native Africans and claims that they are incapable of achieving equality with the Europeans.
Your introduction paragraph does a good job of foretelling what the rest of your blog will be covering. I like how you put the passage in context of what was happening in the novel. I think you could have analyzed word choice a little more in depth. You only give your clear opinion at the end with "this passage is inherently racist because of the way if claims that the Africans will never be equal to the Europeans", but I think other assertions could have been used throughout. Finally, the last sentence should have been a part of the paragraph before because leaving one sentence at the end makes the post seem incomplete. With a little touchups this post could be even more insightful, and it's easy to tell this is a good idea and analysis.
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