Chinua Achebe harshly critiques how our western world views other countries and their inhabitants. He expresses that we operate on pure ignorance when viewing these other places. Achebe supports his argument by discussing Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness. He gives excerpts from the novel, such as the fact that the natives in the story do not use any actual language, just grunts in order to communicate. This closely relates to the film Apocalypse Now. In the movie, the Americans have a certain attitude towards the Vietnamese. They do not see them as human. For example, the American army bombs an entire Vietnamese village for what seems like the hell of it. This type of dehumanization of a group is used in order to justify killing them and can be seen in both the film and Conrad’s novel. It’s understandable why it’s done-feeling no remorse for committing such violent actions is vital for coping with war-but this kind of representation of people in the media is dangerous to our society. Conrad’s novel represents the natives as inferior, and therefore worthy of being conquered. With this type of representation of a culture we are putting up barriers between us and them and fostering an environment for prejudice and wrongful judgement. That’s why ignorance is dangerous and it’s important to represent cultures truthfully.
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