As the steamer sits anchored in the fog, Marlow says that the idea of an attack is inconceivable to him because of the nature of the noise. The pilgrims fear an attack.

Marlow exists outside rge white European imperial "groupthink". His reaction against the colonial structures is supported by people with names like “the Manager” and “the Lawyer” these monikers place Marlow slightly outside the European Imperial system. Groupthink is evident in named groups like the pilgrims and the natives. These groups have a few outstanding members, such as the native woman of arresting beauty or the red-haired pilgrim drunk with bloodthirstiness, but they mostly move together, make the same decisions, and have the same intentions. Conrad critiques such patterns, in which individual in a society think like other members of their group without stopping to think for themselves. Although Marlow is by no means a heroic character, Conrad does illustrate the need for individual thought by singling him out.