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Chapter 40
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lord Jim, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fantasy vs. Reality
Justice and Duty
Racism and Colonialism
Truth and Perspective
Summary
Analysis
As Jim approaches Brown’s men, Cornelius points him out. Jim and Brown go off to talk. Brown hates Jim at first sight and abandons any plans to cooperate with him. Jim asks why Brown came here, and Brown says “hunger.” He asks Jim the same question and Jim just blushes. Brown says Jim should just treat him like a dead man and that Jim himself is a dead man (since one of Brown’s men is ready to shoot him), and so they’re both equal before death.
The impulsive Brown dislikes Jim at once. He can tell immediately that Jim lacks the same greedy spirit as him—or “hunger” as Brown euphemistically puts it here. Although Brown and his crew literally are on the verge of starvation, Brown has an even deeper hunger that can only be satisfied through domination and conquest.
Themes
Brown knows what to say to provoke Jim and his pride. Brown claims that he came for a noble cause: searching for food to fill his crew’s bellies. He says he’s lived a dirty life but is sure it’s as good as Jim’s, if not better.
Just as he used cleverness to escape with a Spanish ship, Brown uses his wits again to try to get himself out of a new difficult situation. Jim’s romantic personality makes him easy to trick.
Themes
