Compare these "letters of fire" with the first sound of the San Tomé stamps, which to Charles Gould had "the peculiar force of a proclamation." As long as he remained committed to his dream-ideal of justice, he remained silent, or rather he let the material sounds of the mine speak for him. Now, in his disillusionment with ideals, he willingly takes up the verbal form of proclamations that he had despised.

The symbolism of walls returns here. Compare the wall upon which Charles Gould is gazing with Decoud's "Like a wall" , referring to the "wall" of isolating darkness. Another contrast between the two men is here: if Decoud's wall is made up of utter concealment, Charles Gould's is a wall of amoral combat, well depicted as hosting "letters of fire." Both walls, however, represent the character exulting in subjective isolation, Decoud (in the Gulf) because he could remain unseen, Gould because he can the better manipulate Holroyd's vanity. See also Nostromo staring "at the wall" in Chapter 3-10.