Should we read Heart of Darkness?

On the topic of whether or not we should read Heart of Darkness, it’s kind of complicated. If we’re reading it just as a story it’s not such a big deal because we can imagine it being fiction and take it or leave it as we please. But, if we read it as a piece of literature and scour every nick and cranny of the book we can pick it to pieces and ultimately form our own opinions whether bad or good about the book. Really it can be seen both ways. I feel that although there are a lot of literary critics who think that Joseph Conrad is a racist, there are a lot of things to consider when thinking about whether or not we should continue to read this book (Armstrong 238). When we look into Conrad’s life we see that he actually did sail through the Congo, but we cannot think of his story as an exact reenactment of history and what had happened there. Marlow is not Conrad, and his work is a piece of fiction even if some of what is in the story was based off real life. When we begin to read the story as just that, a piece of fiction, it seems a little less threatening. Also, a good thing to point out is the fact that even though Marlow is calling the natives of Africa “savages” and other things of that nature, it was common for white people to use such language when referring to people other than themselves. It wasn’t considered “racism” because these people weren’t thought of to be in a class as like themselves and racism wasn’t even a word in those days. I think that it’s ok to read Heart of Darkness but it’s important that we know the whole story and how Conrad himself fits into it. It’s also important to know what was correct and incorrect at that time, because of course if we were in Africa today calling the natives “Negroes” and other names, we would be considered horrible and a racist, but back in that day, that wasn’t the case.