Comparing the Presentation of Cultures in Literary Texts
Question 1 • TX-English II B
What is Achebe’s claim in this excerpt?Conrad’s writing focuses on solitude and sickness, not on clashing cultures or belief systems.Conrad’s depiction of Europeans is biased and mostly negative, and his work should not be read as a result.Conrad uses Africa mostly as a setting to show how separation and solitude lead the human mind to disintegrate.Conrad and literary critics of his text have racist viewpoints because they fail to see the dehumanizing depiction of Africans in the text.
Answer
A
Conrad’s writing focuses on solitude and sickness, not on clashing cultures or belief systems.
B
Conrad’s depiction of Europeans is biased and mostly negative, and his work should not be read as a result.
C
Conrad uses Africa mostly as a setting to show how separation and solitude lead the human mind to disintegrate.
D
Conrad and literary critics of his text have racist viewpoints because they fail to see the dehumanizing depiction of Africans in the text.
Explanation
Achebe argues that Heart of Darkness presents Africans in a dehumanizing way, and that Conrad and critics who overlook this depiction share racist assumptions. This is the claim expressed in choice D. Choice C describes a possible interpretation of the novella but misses Achebe’s criticism of its portrayal of Africans.
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