Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness represents postcolonial ideology, which was not seen as such at the time, but left the 21st century reader with an advantage in analyze the empire imperial rhetoric. The driving theme behind Marlow's story in Heart of Darkness is colonialism. Through the hypocrisy and greed of European colonizers the "savage" native Africans were brutally exploited. Although Conrad emphasizes the exploitation of the natives by the Europeans, he fails to realize his own Eastern ideology. Throughout the story Conrad focuses on colonialism and the hypocrisy of Europeans. In the first section of the story Marlow compares the Europeans to the conquerors, arguing that they were not colonists. “They were conquerors, and for this only brute strength is needed, nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is only an accident resulting from the weakness of others” (Conrad 69-70). They are portrayed as arrogant aggressors who benefit from the exploitation of others. The Europeans had sufficient means and self-interest to take control of the Congo and its natives. ...