After waking up shortly after midnight Marlow finds himself sleeping outside near Kurtz’s camp. Marlow is disturbed by the sounds of abrupt yelling coming from the vicinity of Kurtz’s location. Marlow then sees a light burning inside Kurtz’s cabin, but is shocked to see that Kurtz is nowhere inside when he investigates the area. The shocking realizations that Kurtz escaped from his own cabin makes Marlow feel that he would have “raised …showed first 75 words of 304 total…

…showed last 75 words of 304 total…danger to “pacify” his fear from the brutal nature of the wilderness. Which has begun affecting Marlow mentally and emotionally, he is now willing to use whatever he can to disguise the true, overwhelming fear of the wilderness itself. Marlow doesn’t want to see that he can be destroyed or driven to madness like Kurtz has so he resorts to denying his feeling and the truth of reality to make him feel somewhat better.