Hunt Hawkins

In his article, Hunt Hawkins opposes Chinua Achebe's views that Joseph Conrad is racist. One of the strengths of his argument is he uses direct textual evidence to support his claims. When he argues that Conrad opposed European expansion and imperialism, he quotes Marlow who says the ivory trading company is run for profit rather than civilizing the natives. Hawkins justifies that Conrad condemns Europe for its exploitation of the Congo by using parodies of the firemen with the leaking bucket and the pilgrims shooting from the steamship. Also, he acknowledges Achebe's criticism of Heart of Darkness and then provides evidence against it. Throughout the essay, Hawkins refers back to Achebe's counterargument in the beginning, and responds with specific examples to show its inaccuracy. One of Achebe's reasons for calling Conrad a racist is because he frequently compares the natives to animals. Yet, Hawkins argues that Conrad also shows that Europeans are animalistic, so he is not singling out the Africans. I like that Hawkins references other writings by Conrad, where he attacks white racism because one novella does not completely represent his opinions. Hawkins's argument seems creditable because he uses logical evidence from the novella.

However, sometimes Hawkins makes a counterargument, but agrees agrees with it, which weakens his own essay. After arguing that Conrad criticizes both the Europeans and Africans, he says that the author could be considered racist because the Africans are still on the low end of the scale. He ends his opinions about imperialism by supporting Achebe's claim about racism in the novella before he moves on to his next topic about Kurtz's corruption. This structure is a weakness in his argument because the reader has final thoughts about Achebe instead of Hawkins. Also, he goes on tangents about other works criticizing Heart of Darkness or written during the same time period. They can be distracting from his main argument. I agree with Hawkins that the focus of the novella is on the Europeans and not the Africans. I do not think Conrad is a racist because his views are separate from Marlow's opinions of the natives. I think describes Marlow as racist to expose the similar views of many Europeans at the time, so he raises awareness to change them.