Race and Representation

Achebe objects to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness being regarded as "permanent literature – read and taught and constantly evaluated by serious academics" (2). Achebe believes the text and the author are racist and he supports this argument with a vast amount of evidence, which makes it very convincing. Examples can be noted in Conrad’s descriptions of Africans as being "monstrous", "unearthly" and almost "inhuman" (4). There is an Us and Them dichotomy created, with the Africans being the Other. In Apocalypse Now, the character of Willard plays a more active role than his counterpart, Marlow, in Heart of Darkness. As a soldier, Willard participates in the destruction of the land and the Vietnamese civilians, while Marlow is more of an observer. Nevertheless in both Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness, the Others – Vietnamese or African respectively – that are presented are not given a voice. White males are the driving force of both stories. In a modern screen adaptation of an arguably outdated novella, why is it still white men who have the overriding voices? Although it has been argued that Apocalypse Now is an anti-war film, with satirical moments such as the Flight of the Valkyries scene, it needs to go a step further in its representations of different races.