Achebe's Misinterpretation of Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is considered by many to be a classic, but over the years it has presented many interpretation problems. One of the most notable misinterpretations is Chinua Achebe's An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In it, Achebe points to various passages in the book that supposedly prove that Conrad and his book are racist and that the book should be expelled from the canon of classical literature. This is a false and inaccurate interpretation, and Achebe's objectivity is hampered by his anti-Western bias. From the beginning, Achebe brazenly assumes that Conrad's narrator, Marlow, is merely a mouthpiece for Conrad's ideas. There is no further reflection on the subject. Achebe never considers the fact that there might be implications as to why Conrad chose a narrative structure to tell his story, and chooses to ignore that perhaps by telling the story through the eyes of a European sailor with direct imperialist experience in Africa, could have better exposed the evils of the empire...