Truth In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

When Jim speaks of the “real, real” truth, this suggests the acknowledgement of his prior inability to face the moral conscious effects of the Patna affair, while the “real” truth suggests his seemingly moral redemption in Patusan. Prior to his time on the Patna, Jim was aboard a training ship fantasizing about saving passengers from sinking ships and other heroic feats, when a group of fellow seamen notified him of a nearby conflict. Jim stood to see the seamen rushing up ladders to the deck, but when he followed up through the hatchway he was unable to act as he found himself frozen in perplexity. As the boys rushed past him to aboard a rescue boat to help the survivors of a nearby collision, Jim stood still seeing threatening glimpses of …show more content…
The people of Patusan believe Jim is trustworthy, just, and true, but yet they can never know the underlying “real, real truth” that is the Patna affair. At this point, Jim recognizes that they could never be made to understand not only because he wouldn’t want them to know, but because they wouldn’t believe him if they did. Likewise, when Jewel does not believe that Jim will stay,Marlow tries to assure her that Jim won’t leave, but in doing so he exposes his Jim’s fear of the “real, real truth.” Marlow claims that Jim won’t leave because he is not good enough for the rest of the world to want him. Even after pleading to be told why the world doesn’t want Jim, Jewel is angered by the allegation that he is not good enough to be wanted. Jewel is told that Jim is not good enough by both Marlow and Jim himself, but she refuses to believe it. Her blind infatuation with Jim would not allow her to even begin to fathom why the just and true Lord Jim is not good enough for the rest of the world, so she believes the assertion by Marlow and Jim to be a …show more content…
By understanding that they can never truly know the “real, real truth,” Jim is letting go of his discretion and being more honest with himself and Marlow by expressing how he truly feels about what he has done. Jim has always been known to be very sound with himself and very confident in his abilities; however, he finally seems to be realizing that his confidence in his abilities may not be realistic. Jim recognizing that they can never know the “real, real truth” is good because it indicates that he now believes that he has earned the right to dismiss his mistake from his mind; however, it is also bad because he has not been able to do so yet. In the text’s view, it is good that Jim was able to become a hero in Patusan despite the prior mistakes he had made. However, the people of Patusan never being able to understand the “real, real truth” is also bad in that it proved that he was still struggling with internal conflict. Despite finally becoming the hero he was unable to become during the cutter incident and the Patna affair, Jim was still not fully able to forget the reason he started a new life in