Piano and Darkness

I didn't really like the piano. I guess it wasn't my type of movie. However, I did see the parallels to Heart of Darkness. In each, the natives played a part in the story, but they served only as the backdrop for the main tale. This relates to Achebe's essay, which touches on this exact subject. Achebe claims that making the natives and a country merely the backround in a tale involving Europeans can be considered offensive or racist and undermines the history and the soul of the country and its people.

At one point in HOD, Marlow says that to see the point of his story one must look at it as one would see the backround glow of the moon. Maybe to truly see the meaning of both stories, it is necessary to analyze not only the story, but focus on the setting, which is the native people and their story.

Comments

[Lena K.]

Something bothers me about using the Congo or New Zealand and their natives as a "background." The thing is, the setting is unique, thus obviously people are going to notice them. They aren't just background. Thats why subtle racism in both Heart of Darkness and the Piano infuriates me so much. People either make excuses for it or claim that it isn't important.

[Peter S.]

The fundamental problem with pairing up the two pieces is that, while Conrad satirizes racism, racism in the Piano is overt and demeaning. Conrad put a degree of separation between himself and Marlow by using a narrator. Marlow is thus not an incarnation of Conrad, but a representative of all Europe. When Marlow passes through the grove of death his description are lurid and grotesque, a stark contrast to his description of the accountant. When reading Marlow's description of the accountant, you can feel the sarcasm dripping off every word.

However, in the Piano, we see no such sarcasm. There is just blatant racism. The most significant example of this is the pageant. The natives are treated as if they are the most infantile and naive of children, unable to comprehend shadow puppetry. It is a disgusting portrayal of the natives. Furthermore, the depiction goes unchallenged indicating that the director feels that the Maori are childlike brutes.

Though both stories use colonial territories as a setting, this does not suggest similarity between the stories. The two tales are actually more distinct because of their radically different treatments of racism.

[Ethan B.]

agreeing with peter HOD is most certainly not a racist book. Conrad while he may have been a racist, wrote a book that is more of a critism of racism. secondly, and contrary to peter i dont feel that the piano is racist. yes that natives do attack the performers but in most other parts of the movie they are presented as being kinder, more sensitive, and in many cases smarter. they are portrayed very steryotypically, but they are also seen acting a normal people, and the fact that they are used as a back drop for the story is because the story is about a wite woman.

[Adam S.]

When we were watching the movie, Mr. Heidkamp said, "don't look for parallels between this film and Heart of Darkness. They aren't there." I think that is a good indication that we were presented with a movie from a similar time period, in the era of colonialism, but with a vastly different subject matter.
The piano is a love story, a romantic film that shows the power of emotions, even when restricted by physical impediments. We already know that Heart of Darkness is not a love story, but a masterful account of the trials and tribulations of Imperialism in the Belgian Congo.
In short, I feel that there are few parallels between the two.

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