wn true stuff---with his own inborn strength. Principles won't do. Acquisitions, clothes, prettyrags---rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief. An appeal to me in this fiendish row---is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the voice that can not be silenced (60)." This is the lesson which Marlow has learned. Objective standards alone will not lead one to recognize the reality in something. One can not only depend on anther's principles to find his reality in something because they have not had to bear the pain and responsibility of creating it. Principles are usually acquisitions, which like other things we acquire rather than generate, like clothes are easily shaken off. The power of speech which will sustain a man is the power to create or affirm for one's self a deliberate, or a chosen belief (Bruce Johnson. 79). This judgment must be from one's own internal strengths. That is why Marlow says, "for good or evil, mine is the speech that can not be silenced". As Kurtz has taught him with his own judgment, a judgment of truth overpowers morality. To find one's own reality, one must not rely solely on other people's morality, others people's 'principles' and he must assess his own life. What Kurtz did is that he showed that regardless of whether the truth is good or bad, one must face up to his reality. He must face up to his own actions even when the conclusion is "the horror", and by doing so, he will find his true reality. Marlow understands that being true to yourself is not following anther's moral code, but being able to judge one's self honestly and uncover their own reality. It is because of this understanding that Marlow claims that Kurtz's last words is "a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats..."(120). Despite Kurtz's immoral ways, he is victorious because he didn't run away from the truth; and that is hi...
