help when needed. On the other hand, once a man enters the Congo, he is all alone. He has no policeman and no kind neighbors. When Marlow enters the Congo and begins his voyage, 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. Marlow's evolution from an average European to a man who realizes his own naivet, and ultimately discovers his own reality, is evident in his observations of how things are labeled in the Congo. It is these observations which change Marlow forever. Marlow first realizes the Europeans flaw of not being able to give something a name of significance at the beginning of his voyage, just when he is about to reach the Congo: 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 ensign dropped like a limp rag; the muzzles of the long six inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech---and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives---he called them enemies!---hidden out of sight somewhere. (17) Marlow is watching this occurrence. He sees the Europeans firing "tiny projectiles" (17) and hears the pop of the cannons. The Europeans, however, see themselves fighting an all out war against savage enemies in the name of imperialism. The Europeans feel that this is an ...
