Belaboring Colonialism In the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the reader is given a look at Belgium’s colonialism, and how grimly corrupt that policy is. Colonialism is a “policy in which a nation maintains or extends its control over foreign dependencies.” (The American Heritage Dictionary, ‘colonialism’) Usually a country like Britain would take over a primitive country such as Africa civilize it and make some sort of trade or stimulate mutual economic …showed first 75 words of 763 total…

…showed last 75 words of 763 total…European colonialism. At a point in the novel we see Conrad’s blatant negative description of colonialism. As two men debate over whether or not to hang a man guilty of nothing one says to the other, “Why not? Anything – anything can be done in this country.”(57) This quote demonstrates what Conrad is attempting to do throughout this novel: express Africa as a place of darkness and use the pitfalls of colonialism to do so.