细心整理Heart of Darkness读后感Heart of Darkness is a famous book which is written by Joseph Conrad. The book has several themes and we chose one of them to analyze-the hypocrisy of imperialism or the criticism of colonialism.Heart of Darkness explores the issues surrounding imperialism in complicated ways. As Marlow travels from the Outer Station to the Central Station and finally up the river to the Inner Station, he encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery. For instance, “They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea.” At the very least, the incidental scenery of the book offers a harsh picture of colonial enterprise. The impetus behind Marlows adventures, too, has to do with the hypocrisy inherent in the rhetoric used to justify imperialism. The men who work for the Company describe what they do as “trade,” and their treatment of native Africans is part of a benevolent project of “civilization.” But what they actually do is taking pains to take treasure by force and violence. We can see this from “if a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds of fearful weapons suddenly took to travelling on the road between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and left to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon.” Kurtz, on the other hand, is open about the fact that he does not trade but rather takes ivory by force, and he describes his own treatment of the natives with the words “suppression” and “extermination”: he does not hide the fact that he rules through violence and intimidation. His perverse honesty leads to his downfall, as his success threatens to expose the evil practices behind European activity in Africa. However, for Marlow as much as for Kurtz or for the Company, Africans in this book are mostly objects: Marlow refers to his helmsman as a piece of machinery, and Kurtzs African mistress is at best a piece of statuary. It can be argued that Heart of Darkness participates in an oppression of nonwhites that is much more sinister and much harder to remedy than the open abuses of Kurtz or the Companys men. Africans become for Marlow a mere backdrop, a human screen against which he can play out his philosophical and existential struggles. Their existence and their exoticism enable his self-contemplation. This kind of dehumanization is harder to identify than colonial violence or open racism. While Heart of Darkness offers a powerful condemnation of the hypocritical operations of imperialism, it also presents a set of issues surrounding race that is ultimately troubling.On the other hand, we also found a symbol, fog that contributes to this theme.Fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures but distorts: it gives one just enough information to begin making decisions but no way to judge the accuracy of that information, which often ends up being wrong. Marlows steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has no idea where hes going and no idea whether peril or open water lies ahead. And the further meaning is what seems to be right, just and enlightened now are actually wrong, unjust and guilty.In conclusion, one of the theme in Heart of Darkness is the hypocrisy of imperialism. Through this theme, Joseph Conrad want to reveal the cruelty which is covered by civilization and the darkness which is hidden under the white skin.