Faith in others is really the first level of defence: it protects simple people like Captain Mitchell and Don Pepe, who base their identity firmly on their public role. Nostromo too, alone in the Gulf at the end of Part Two, was saved by considering "the problem of future conduct" , i.e., his relationship to others. But want of faith in others merely equates Decoud with several other disillusioned characters, such as Monygham, the changed Nostromo and arguably even the Goulds, all of whom avoid Decoud's fate.

Want of faith in the self is the key that sets Decoud apart. Decoud, though sitting on the very symbol of self-worth -- the treasure on the Great Isabel -- loses the sense of his own individuality. When Nostromo sits in the same spot at the end of the chapter (and even the same pose), what saves him is specifically "a gust of immense pride," i.e., a sense of self. Whether Decoud's self-emptiness derives from too much skepticism, too much intellect, or simply too much indecision, the irony is that the novel's most dynamic character dies, essentially, from lack of character.