Inside every human is a savage evil side that society suppresses. This evil side often breaks out during times of isolation and confrontation between cultures. Whenever different cultures meet, there is often a fear of change or corruption within those cultures and also loss of self that leads to discover more about one's identity. Joseph Conrad once wrote, "The individual consciousness was destined to be in total contradiction to its physical and moral environment". The physiological and psychological changes in the characters are reflected both in his Heart of Darkness and Coppola's Apocalypse Now as they go on with their journeys to the Congo and the Nung. In both the book and the movie, the various events along each individual journey help illustrate not only the physical deterioration of the environment and the characters' health but also the psychological decline of the characters' conscience and consciousness.
             In both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, the environment dramatically shifts as the journeys go on. The movie's setting is in Saigon and Columbia during the Vietnam War while the novel's setting is in Africa. The directions of both journeys are established as a movement from open to narrow and restricted spaces, from the light of the sun into the darkness. In Heart of Darkness, the rivers begin to narrow as the ships approach Kurtz's compound, and Conrad describes this last section of the river as "narrow, straight, with high sides like a railway cutting" (65). In Apocalypse Now, the river towards the end of the journey is located between steep cliffs on both sides. Also, physical deterioration can be seen as they go on with their journeys. In Heart of Darkness, signs of physical fatigue of the crew have escalated along the journey. In Apocalypse Now, such signs are most evident in the failing luster in the eyes of Willard and his crew, as well as t...