ot get rid of them. These primeval inclinations will always be like a black cloth lurking in the background. Man is protected from himself by society with its laws and watchful neighbors. Someone who has never exceeded the city limits cannot imagine the powerful connection between himself and the devil as he steps delicately between the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums (pg. 122). Without the safeties of society and apart from civilization, Kurtz is a point within the circular boundary of fate. He is able to exercise free will, and restraint, within the predestined circumstances already laid out before him. Kurtzs choice to abandon all restraint leads to the death of his reason. Only after he completely falls into the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines (pg. 147) does he realize how horrible his life has become. Kurtz saw how his past made up the person he is as he lies on his deathbed. He doesnt completely condemn his lifestyle, but merely acknowledges its horror.Instead of being in total control of nature, the Europeans in Africa are at its mercy, in the same way a sleeper is at the hands of his dreams. The Europeans civilized forms of rationality only produce chaos as they fight the ways of the jungle. Nature, or God, tries to push the intruders, including Marlow, out of Africa by presenting every obstacle imaginable. Even before he sets out, omens present themselves to Marlow, including the destruction of his boat. After this catastrophe, Marlow asked [himself] what [he] was to do there, now [his] boat was lost (pg. 87). However, without this delay in his journey, Marlow wouldnt arrive in the Inner Station at the time he did, changing his experiences with Kurtz, and perhaps altering Marlows resulting enlightenment. Marlow feels the presence of a higher being working against him and his crew. Gods river seems to want to expel the Europeans from Africa altogether: its...
