Part One of the novel was about Unification, the force that pulls political entities together, as illustrated by the "Imperium" of the San Tomé mine. Part Two is about the opposite process: Separation, the force that pulls political entities apart. The Isabels symbolize individuals, isolated in the "Placid Gulf" which stands for the uncrossable space between souls. This subjective isolation, Nostromo argues, is the fundamental cause leading to the fragmentation of societies. Starting from the triumphant Unionism that ended Part One, Part Two will eventually boil down to Nostromo and Decoud, alone in the darkness of the Gulf, apart from the rest of the world and finally from each other -- the ultimate atomization.