sses his new 'understanding'. Marlow cannot return to his previous 'European ways' simply because he has 'been enlightened' and lost his naivet. However, why can't he adapt Kurtz's ways and live the other extreme? At one point, Marlow had "peeped over the edge"(119). Why didn't he 'jump over'? Marlow is repelled from joining Kurtz for several reasons. Firstly, Kurtz had "kicked himself loose from the earth...he had kicked the earth to pieces. He was alone, and I[Marlow] before him did not know whether I stood on the ground or floated in the air"(112). Kurtz had denied any sort of moral convictions in order to be worshipped as a god. Because of this unmonitered power, Kurtz lost all sense of restraint and became the savage that he was. Marlow, however, has not lost his sense of morality. What Marlow rejected in Kurtz was the "complete absence in Kurtz of any innate or transcendental sanctions" (Johnson. 99). It is because of Marlow's rejection of both the Europeans, who Marlow claims are full of "stupid importance", and of Kurtz'sinability to establish his own moral code, that Marlow chooses an "alternative reality"(Berthoud. 60). The first time the reader witnesses Marlow's choice and becomes a centrist, is when he first gets back to Europe. Marlow finds himself resenting the way the Europeans went about their life, "hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other..."(120).Not only did he find their lives meaningless, but he mocked them to himself. "I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance... I tottered about the streets...grinning bitterly at perfectly respectable people. I admit my behavior was inexcusable..." (120). Although Marlow looked down upon these Europeans, he says something remarkable. He judged his own actions and found them 'inexcusable'. This is his manifestation of bre...
