cheer youor to fall you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums---how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammeled feet may take him into by the way of solitude---utter solitude without a policeman---by the way of silence utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbor can be heard whispering of public opinion(82)?" In Europe, there are "kind neighbors" who are there to make sure that everything is all right. The European lives his life "stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman". Everywhere he looks, there is always someone there who can "catch him if he is falling". On the other hand, once a man enters the Congo, he is all alone. No policeman, no "warning voice of a kind neighbor"...no one! It is now when Marlow enters the Congo and begins his voyage, that he realizes the environment he comes from is not reality, and the only way he is going to discover reality is to keep going up the river... There is one specific theme in Heart of Darkness in which the reader can follow Marlow's evolution from the "everyday European" to a man who realizes his own naivet and finally to his uncovering of his own reality. This evolution comes about as a direct result of Marlow's observations of how things are named. This sounds very unusual, that a man would find his true reality by observing the names of certain things. However, it is precisely these observations which change Marlow forever. Marlow first realizes the European's flaw of not being able to give something a name of significance, in the beginning of his voyage, when he has not quite reached the Congo, but he is extremely close. Once, I remember, we came upon a man of war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on there-abouts. Her...
