Blog 5

   I think Achebe's objection to heart of darkness is would be the view they have on the indigenous people the inhabit the area.  They are described as free monsters because the men on the river do not understand what they are seeing.  They are unaccustomed to what is common in the region.  Do to this misunderstanding they fear it and describe it as something it is not, something to be feared.  The direct correlation that you can see between the story and the movie is the white man coming down the river seeing things they have never seen before and out of fear of these things treat and describe it in a way that regards them to lower than human standards.  This is done to cope with the fear they have, just as in the movie the boat of innocent Vietnamese people are massacred by the men on the boat because "Mr. Clean" freaks out when the women runs to protect her puppy.
     Misconceptions seems to be the common thing in all the stories read and the movie watched.  From most of these misconceptions fear is born.  Out of this fear comes the irrational decision making and thinking that can be seen through out both.  In "An Image of Africa" the fear that is born comes from ignorance.  They judge what the indigenous people are doing as barbaric and, due to their ignorance of the people practices and beliefs they are seen as the unsavory.  In the movie the fear is born out of not wanting to die, as well as ignorance to what is good and what is evil in there situation. At least in the movies the lines are a little more blurred than in the story.