Violence and gender discrimination in "Heart of Darkness" and "Things Fall Apart"

Violence & discrimination against women & Africans: the African landscape of Chinua Achebe & Joseph Conrad

In the novels "Things Fall Apart" and "Heart of Darkness," by Chinua Achebe and Joseph Conrad, respectively, the issue of violence dominated the African cultural landscape. In Conrad's novel, violence was illustrated through the animosity between white Europeans (Africa's colonizers) and Africans, people who were, ironically, natives of the very land that they were colonized. In Achebe's narrative of African life, violence also dominated, although one of the central theme in the novel was the evident discrimination against women. These varying forms of animosity in the African landscape served as the foundation of African culture during the years where it had experienced civil strife and oppression against its colonizers.

In this paper, violence is but the general theme that helped depict the African landscape in both novels. More specifically, Africa was given a 'shade of darkness' because of continuous conflicts between the natives and colonizers, and even among the colonizers themselves. Each novel, however, depicted this darkness that is violence in different ways. For Conrad's novel, violence was explicitly illustrated, as shown in the conflict between Kurtz and his African slaves; meanwhile, Achebe's protagonist Okonkwo showed his animosity against and oppression of women in his family. These examples in each novel show the violent nature of the African cultural landscape.

In "Heart of Darkness," Conrad showed the explicit and first form of violence that made up the African landscape. Using the theme of colonizer vs. colonized or oppressor against oppressed, the novel highlighted how underneath the use of extreme violence and oppression of the white colonizers against the natives, there existed the deep fear that the natives would retaliate and cannot be controlled anymore. Thus, as Kurtz approached his death, he came upon the realization of this possibility -- a possibility that came true upon his 'defeat' (death). This realization was embodied in his exclamation, "The horror! The horror!" As he neared his death. Explicit violence was, evidently, just a "mask" that colonizers used to cover up their fears of the potential power and control of the natives over them (colonizers).