Heart of Darkness/Things Fall Apart ( Moral Dilemma)

840 Words4 Pages
The moral dilemma of a story can be defined as how a character negotiates their individual conscience with society’s accepted code of conduct. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow faces a moral dilemma by not being able to think of the Africans as normal human beings because he can’t oppose the imperialists while having to deal with the fact that the man who was his “inspiration” is a mad man, while facing the fact that he is similar to Kurtz. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, a clan leader in Umuofia, has to face his moral dilemmas in his every day life with his family, Ikemefuna, a new member of his family, and his tribe. Marlow faces a moral dilemma by not being able to think of Africans as sane human beings, and is too influenced by society’s opinion about them. “It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar”(Part Two Conrad). He has to choose whether to go with his personal decision, or go along with in the novel’s case, European’s society code of conduct. Okonkwo faces many moral dilemmas with his family, but one of the main one is with his son Nwoye. The Christians, who came to Okonkwo’s mother village convinced Nwoye to become apart of Christianity, and its beliefs. Okonkwo has to face whether or not to disown him, or accept that he is apart of a new religion. “But he was happy to leave his father. He would return later to his mother and his brothers and sisters and convert them to the new faith”(23-24 Achebe). In the end he decides to disown Nwoye. Another moral dilemma Marlow faces, is accepting the fact

More about Heart of Darkness/Things Fall Apart ( Moral Dilemma)

Open Document