When the light goes out, Nostromo is plunged into the subjective dream again, and can hold her. Note that her white neck provides another instance of a human being seeming to glow in the darkness, symbolizing the value of the subjective soul.

The image of the drowning man weighted with silver in "the gulf" is a striking parallel with Decoud, suggesting that Giselle is the only thing keeping Nostromo from utter skeptical hopelessness. So far in this chapter the People, allegorically speaking, have levelled their frown at both the oppressive society (the San Tomé mountain) and the bloodthirsty revolt (the photographer's speech), leaving them desperate with nowhere to go, nowhere but the beautiful dream of the happy world. That a "straw" cannot keep a drowning man afloat is one indication of the flimsiness of that dream.