A hint that he has taken a "back seat" to the gathering momentum of the material interests -- the politics of Avellanos, the colonization scheme of Sir John. And yet, this is the position he wants: see how he commands the coming war from "in the background" , and later how he loses that desired position. Materialism, as portrayed in Nostromo, is both a conquering and a self-effacing force. This is directly embodied in the character of Charles Gould, but note that both Holroyd and Sir John share the same quality of seeking power without seeking an office of rulership. There is a dark sense in the novel that the ideal of materialism ultimately seeks the rule of material, of the inanimate world over all living things including oneself. In the following paragraphs we see Charles unemotionally obliterate a colorful scene of human life, reducing it to a "piece of land" that will henceforth be used for the railroad. Note also his wife's reaction, as her organic ideal deviates ever further from his materialist one.