Charles Gould is the allegory of materialism to such an extent that a narrative qualification is needed when speaking of his emotions. Note that the agent of these (so-called) emotions is not his father as such, but his father's death. Observe also how many times the words "death," "dead," "dead man's" and "departed" occur in this paragraph. A strong theme in Nostromo is that materialism represents ultimately the inanimate world, not the needs of the living. Behind the psychological relationship of Charles Gould with his father, then, this paragraph portrays the allegorical relationship of materialism with death.