This chapter introduces Decoud, the central figure in Part Two and arguably the
main character of the novel. Allegorically it is made clear right away that Decoud
represents skepticism, the rejection of all ideals, or to be more precise, the
ideal of non-ideals. In Decoud the central tension of Nostromo receives
its strongest and most personal treatment: knowing that ideals are illusory and
dangerous constructs, Decoud is nevertheless attracted to them by the barren nihilism
of the alternative. His relationship with Antonia, which dates from their childhood
in the manner of an eternal question, pits skepticism against idealism in a dynamic
that will draw the novel's central themes closest to the surface.