Heart of Darkness: Racist or Not? Many critics, including Chinua Achebe in his essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", have argued that Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, despite the insights it offers into the human condition, should be removed from the canon of Western literature. This statement is based on the assumption that the novel is racist, more so than other novels of its time. While it can be read this way, it is possible to look beneath the surface and create an interpretation of Conrad's novel that does not require the assumption of extreme racism on Conrad's part. Furthermore, we must keep in mind that Conrad was the product of a rather racist historical period, and it seems unfair to penalize him for failing to transcend his contemporaries in this respect. This novel, it seems, must be read in a symbolic way perspective. Objects and characters are not as simple as they seem. Achebe tells us: "Quite simply it is the desire...in Western psychology to regard Africa as a counterpart to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which the state of spiritual grace of Europe will be more evident” (251-252). Achebe himself states, descriptions of Africans as more than vague limbs in the darkness are few and far between in the novel. The opposition between light and darkness in the novel, far from being Conrad's own, is traditional in literature Western Conrad simply uses the most familiar symbols to represent the dichotomy between good and evil to enhance the psychological aspect of his novel... middle of paper... It could also be argued that while Marlow is racist, Conrad is not. ...something similar to the setting of another famous river novel, Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However, I reject this claim: Marlow does the overwhelming majority of the talking in this novel, and so the reader identifies him as the narrative voice of the novel even though there is, strictly speaking, a plot outside of this. Finally, even if Conrad was more racist than other authors of his time, why is this so significant? The novel is still valuable as an art object, for the psychological insights it offers both into the human condition in general and into the motivations of European imperialism and colonization. A novel like this should not be removed from the canon simply on the basis of its offensive potential. All great literature must have at least the potential to offend.