a. The reader can also see the Europeans obliviousness of reality when Marlow is recounting his adventure aboard the Nellie. He addresses his comrades: When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality--the reality I tell you---fades. The inner truth is hidden luckily, luckily. But I felt it all the same; I felt often its mysterious stillness watching over me at my monkey tricks, just as it watches you fellows performing on your respective tight ropes for---what is it? half a crown a tumble . . . . (36) While he is in the Congo, although he has to concentrate on the petty everyday things like overseeing the repair of his boat, he is still aware of what is going on around him and of the horrible reality he is in. On the other hand, his friends on the boat simply do not recognize this reality. It is their ignorance and innocence which provokes them to tell Marlow to "try to be civil" (36). Not only are they oblivious to the reality that Marlow sees, but their naivet is so great that they can not even comprehend such a thing (Johnson 356). Quite surprisingly, this mentality does not pertain exclusively to the Englishmen in Europe. At one point during Marlow's voyage down the Congo, he wakes to find his boat in an enormous patch of fog. At that very instant, a "very loud cry" is let out (41). After Marlow looks around and makes sure everything is all right, he observes the contrasts of the whites and the blacks expressions: It was very curious to see the contrast of expression of the white men and of the black fellows of our crew, who were as much strangers to that part of the river as we, though their homes were only eight hundred miles away. The whites, of course greatly discomposed, had besides a curio...
