"The truth you speak has no past and no future/ It is and that's all it needs to be..." (Bach). In Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, Jim must release his notions of perfection in order to begin his "downward path" toward truth. Before Jim can descend into a heightened realm of truth and existence, he must let go of his need for perfection. Only then can he see the nature of truth in its enigmatic beauty. The chaos of Jim's life has no order until Jim realizes that the chaos has an order all itself, that the darkness glows illuminous, and that truth can be known only in unknowing. Erasing a drawing means losing a picture, but at the same time it means leaving a blank page where anything can take shape, a page full of possibility and mystery, where anything can happen. The world Jim discovers once he "erases" his notions of perfection contains the same elements of possibility and mystery. Jim's submission to this world, as a participant rather than an observer, takes Jim out of the cave of darkness and into the light. The light reveals yet a new truth for Jim, a truth governed by enigma, ambiguity, and an eternal state of change.
             Ignorance lies in the ability to recognize the truth around oneself. Jim's struggle for perfection lies in his inability to discern the shadows on the cave's wall. Whether it's an inability or an unwillingness to see the obvious, Jim refuses to acknowledge the inescapable truth in front of him: "At first he was thankful the night had covered up the scene before his eyes, and then to know of it and yet to have seen and heard nothing appeared somehow the culminating-point of an awful misfortune" (Conrad 71). Jim's denial only blinds him from seeing the truth that exists within, and binds him to the chains of illusion: "Free from desire, you realize the mystery./ Caught in desire you see only the manifestations" (The
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