Nostromo, like Decoud, has a brush with suicide, and again Nostromo passes the test that Decoud failed. There are two levels to his defense. The first is at the level of his idealized reputation: he imagines the "disgrace" going on even without him. Compare his adventure in the gulf, when he was ready to die to "save" his reputation ; here again the reputation trumps issues of life and death. But this is not his final reason. His second level of defense is, once again, a strong sense of self where Decoud had none (see his earlier "gust of immense pride" ). He literally cannot imagine himself dead. We have just been told that this subjective self-worth is almost a form of "insanity," so once again the novel leaves us with the grim message that we need our illusions to keep us alive.