Best of the Week: The View of the Black Slave in Heart of Darkness

I believe that the best idea stated in class was whether or not the view of the black slave could be worked into Heart of Darkness. The most interesting idea that I though was offered was making the narrator black and have him expressing his views based upon the actions of Marlow and those around him. But this would not have worked because it takes away from the integrity of the novel and alters Marlow's true experience because Marlow is using this story to reflect and find inner meaning. With all of the other examples that were offered, there was some reason that it couldn't be worked in without changing the story in a profound way. This then made me realize the importance of the history of the author and time period of publication. In Conrad's time, racism was still an integral part of all societies. Even a person like Conrad who was writing this story and being abnormal for his time would have found a book with the view of a black man to be too revolutionary. To further demonstrate Conrad's racism, I would like to point out that there is not a single point in the novel when a black man is not portrayed as being inferior or savage. It has rarely occurred to me that these two aspects were that important, but this book has really shown how changing when the book was written would affect the overall product. Even if the book isn't historical fiction, you still need to do your research to fully understand and comprehend the deliberate decisions that the author made.