see about him. After the Outer Station, Marlow reaches the Central Station and his Ego. The Ego is "the personality component that is conscious, most immediately controls behavior, and is most in touch with external reality" (American Heritage Dictionary). The Ego consciously makes decisions for whole mind. The Ego also helps to control the Id, or the primal urges. It keeps the moral standards of the mind and is self-control. At the Outer Station, Marlow tells his audience, "I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life" (20). In Marlow's case, turning his back on the station, or self-control, helped him to remain human. If he had not turned his back on self-control, he would have become empty and void of life as the manager was. He would not have been able to see anything good in life. At this stage of his journey, Marlow is struggling with keeping control of his urges, but he can do it because he is still at the Central Station, where his Ego still has control of his Id.The Id is the final level in Marlow's journey to the depths of his soul. Marlow reaches his Id when he reaches the Inner Station and Kurtz. The entire journey was undertaken in order to reach this goal. The Id is "the division of the psyche associated with the instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs" (American Heritage Dictionary). The Id is the part of man that harbors pure animal-like urges and desires. Perhaps the Id is the element of man that makes him do evil things. On page thirty-two, Marlow states that "the mind of man is capable of anythingbecause everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future." Marlow is observing that man's mind is extremely complex and is composed of all of these layers. All of the layers of the mind contribute to what man is capable of and, depending on which section is domin...
