Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart: A Comparative Study

Heart of Darkness: Overview and Themes

Heart of Darkness is a novel and novella by Joseph Conrad, set in Brussels at the Belgian Company offices and in the Congo between 1876 and 1892.

The story's major characters include Marlow, the narrator, who is independent-minded, philosophical, and skeptical of white imperialism. He draws his story from the author's own experiences journeying to the Congo River. Kurtz is the scheming and ruthlessly ambitious villain — the dark embodiment of European colonialism — who exploited the ignorance of the natives to entrench himself as their god in his pursuit of ivory. The supporting cast includes the general manager who runs the Belgian Central Station, the Pilgrims, the cannibals, and the Russian trader.

In the plot, Marlow is the captain of a riverboat engaged in trade with a Belgian company in Central Africa. He is sent to investigate the work of Kurtz. Along the way, Marlow witnesses the brutal treatment of Africans at the Belgian Central Station. He is later guided to the Inner Station, where he finds the ailing Kurtz, who has held mystical sway over the natives while raiding surrounding territories in pursuit of ivory. Kurtz had Marlow's boat set on fire and attempts to escape, but Marlow finds him and brings him back to the ship. The dying Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a pamphlet on how to "civilize savages." Marlow carries his remains back to Europe, where Kurtz is celebrated as a virtuous and extraordinary achiever.

The central conflict pits Marlow and Kurtz as opposite images of civilized Europeans forced to confront moral questions entirely outside the European context. Marlow witnesses the revolting and inhumane treatment of native employees at the Central Station. He hears rumors of Kurtz being a remarkable and humane man, yet discovers the physical and mental breakdown that the African environment inflicts on Europeans. He ultimately finds that Kurtz has completely abandoned European morals and behavioral norms. Marlow accepts responsibility for the legacy and consequences of his fellow European's actions.

The novel's major themes include the hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a result of imperialism, the absurdity of evil, the mystery of the so-called "Dark Continent," the darkness of barbarism, spiritual obscurity within certain characters, and — notably — the darkness within London itself during the Roman era. This book reveals the two faces of Western imperialism, offering a perspective that exploited or colonized nations must grapple with in order to understand how imperialism operates.

Things Fall Apart: Overview and Themes

Things Fall Apart is a novel by Chinua Achebe, set in Nigerian villages in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa — specifically Iguendo and Mbanta — in the 1890s. The novel was published in 1959 by Heinemann Educational Books.

The major characters include Okonkwo, an influential leader in the Umuofia clan; Nwoye, his young son whom he considers weak and unworthy; Ikemefuna, his adopted and beloved son from another village; Unoka, his disappointing father; Obierika, his close friend; Enoch, a fanatical Christian convert; and Ogbuefi Eizeudu, the oldest man in the village.

Okonkwo is driven by a desperate need to prove himself stronger, more effective, and wealthier than his father, Unoka. For this reason, he resents his son Nwoye, whom he sees as duplicating his father's laziness, worthlessness, and poverty. He adopts Ikemefuna, whom he secretly loves, but when the boy is prophesied to be ill-fated and must be killed, Okonkwo cannot stand aside — because Ikemefuna calls him "father" — and in a misguided assertion of masculinity, Okonkwo kills the boy himself. Later, at the funeral of the oldest villager, Okonkwo's gun accidentally kills the dead man's son. To avoid punishment, Okonkwo and his family go into exile in another village.

While in exile, white missionaries penetrate the region. They are initially led by the tolerant Mr. Brown, who is later replaced by the strict and intolerant Reverend James Smith. During a festival, the zealous Christian convert Enoch unmasks an egwugwu — a gross violation equivalent to killing an ancestral spirit. In retaliation, the natives burn the church. The district commissioner then tricks tribal leaders into a meeting and jails them. When they are released, the community gathers, but court messengers arrive to break up the meeting. Okonkwo kills their leader, but the other villagers do not support him — they allow the remaining messengers to escape. Overcome by failure and guilt, Okonkwo commits suicide, which is considered a grave sin, and native custom forbids anyone from touching his body. The white colonial government uses his tragic rebellion and death as the basis for a book about pacifying "primitive tribes" in the lower Niger.

The conflicts are both external and internal. Externally, the Western customs imposed by white colonizers clash with the traditional society of the Umuofia. Internally, Okonkwo struggles to define himself in opposition to everything he despises in his father. Enoch's violation of sacred custom during a feast triggers a chain of events — the burning of the church, the arrest of Umuofian leaders, mounting tension between villagers and colonizers — that culminates in Okonkwo's murder of a court messenger and his eventual suicide. Having sinned gravely, his body may not be touched by his community. The white colonial government uses his story as the basis for a book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

The novel's themes include the struggle between tradition and change, interpretations of masculinity, and language as a marker of cultural difference. Its key symbols are locusts, fire, and drums. Locusts represent the white colonists descending upon African communities, bringing both disruption and, in some eyes, a strange promise. Fire represents Okonkwo's ferocity and destructiveness. The drums provide the physical and communal heartbeat uniting the Umuofia clan. The novel also employs the concept of chi and animal imagery as recurring motifs.

Achebe layers his narrative with foreshadowing: Ikemefuna is described as ill-fated from the start; the arrival of locusts alludes to the eventual coming of the white colonizers; and Okonkwo's suicide is subtly suggested by his closest friend.

Similarities and Differences Between the Novels

Both novels center on Western imperialism in the African continent. Both are set in the later part of the nineteenth century. Both make allusions to benevolence among European colonizers — Marlow in Conrad's novel and Mr. Brown in Achebe's — as well as to the cruelty, madness, and intolerance that imperialism also produces, as embodied by Kurtz in Conrad's work and Reverend James Smith in Achebe's.

Heart of Darkness is narrated from the point of view of a European colonizer — specifically, a European captain voyaging into the African interior. Things Fall Apart, by contrast, is an African writer's response to that European gaze: Achebe writes back against the image of Africa as a primitive, culture-less backdrop for European self-discovery. Conrad's novel presents the confrontation between sheer evil and a residual benevolence within European colonization, embodied by the contrast between Kurtz and Marlow. In Achebe's work, this evil is expressed through the imposition of Christianity by Reverend James Smith and through the perverse compulsions driving Okonkwo's actions.