Imperialism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Abstract

Imperialism and the colonial movements towards the third world, the cruel policy of exploitation of both human beings and their land and wealth have often depicted in literary works, Imperialism in Heart of Darkness is the theme I have discussed in my dissertation which is divided into two chapters. The general introduction is about Imperialism as a concept and its policy towards the weak nations. The first chapter is untitled Hypocrisy of Imperialism, it is about the hypocrite lies the Europeans imperial countries maintained in order to invade Africa and so many other areas in the world. After introducing what is meant by hypocrisy I start to discuss the distinction between Conquest, colonization and Imperialism according to what was mentioned in Conrad‘s novella Heart of Darkness as a first subtitle of the first chapter. The second sub-theme is The White Man‘s Burden, the concept that gives the white race the right to interfere, control and exploit the other non-white people in the name civilization. Darwinism, the Natural Selection which classifies the creatures into superior and inferior, even the human being is classified according to his body form and skin color, it makes the white men the best race and he is able to exploit the other races for his service. A conclusion for the chapter that all these theories are tools to convince the Africans that they are inferior to the European colonial men. The second chapter is about Corruption of Imperialism, after introducing the idea that Imperial thought has caused corruption on both the colonizer and the colonized people, the first sub-title is Psychological Transformation especially about Kurtz the second main character who changes from a kind, intellectual and a civilized European man to a cruel, authoritative and savage person. I discuss also Greed for Ivory as a second sub-title in the second chapter. It is about the blind pursuit of desire of Kurtz, the pilgrims and all the European characters in the story for becoming rich and leaving their first noble aim to come to Africa which is civilizing its natives. The third sub-title is the religious aspect of the story. The hypocrite faith of Kurtz when he asks the natives to worship him as a god and about the pilgrims who come to spread Christianity but once they arrive to Africa they turn to pagans worshiping ivory. The last sub-theme I discuss is Corruption of the African Image. Imperialism denies the existence of an African civilization or identity. Most of the events make the native inhabitants in an inferior and passive position. Which makes them obliged to accept any other civilization although it does not suit their owns. The General conclusion is as a reply or an answer for the research question. As a final result of the work.