Nostromo Timeline and Summary

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• Nostromo comes to Costaguana from Italy as a sailor. Mitchell poaches him away and makes him the foreman of his lightermen and protector of the jetty.
• Nostromo builds a reputation as someone you don't want to mess with, helping local businessmen and administrators keep order.
• When General Montero leads a revolt against the government of President Vincente Ribiera, Nostromo helps get the President out of the country safely and helps quash riots in Sulaco.
• When it becomes clear that Sulaco is going to be invaded by two separate revolutionary forces, Nostromo is asked to work with Martin Decoud, a local journalist, to get the silver out of town. Nostromo succeeds in getting the silver to the Great Isabel and burying it. Leaving Martin there, he sinks the lighter (to avoid questions about where the lighter went and where its cargo was) and swims to shore.
• Then, he is asked to go get General Barrios and bring him back to Sulaco to fight the anti-revolutionary forces and help bring about peace by splitting the Occidental province off into an independent state. He is successful.
• On his way back with Barrios, he sees the tiny boat he left with Decoud just floating out in the gulf. He hops out of the boat quick as a bunny and discovers evidence that Martin had died, leaving most of the silver (except what he needed to weight his body down) buried on the island.
• Since everyone thought the silver was lost already, Nostromo opts not to correct their impression. He decides to just trade the silver in gradually over time and grow rich that way.
• One minor complication: the O.S.N. decides to put a lighthouse on the Great Isabel, which means Nostromo's silver might get discovered. His solution is to ask Captain Mitchell to appoint his longtime friends, the Viola family, to be the caretakers.
• Things go downhill from there. He gets so obsessed with his secret treasure that he starts making rash decisions. He gets engaged to Linda, the older Viola daughter, but also strikes up a romance with the younger sister, which indirectly leads to him getting shot while prowling around the Great Isabel.
• On his deathbed, he summons Mrs. Gould and asks her if she wants to know the location of the silver. She says no, and he dies, taking the secret of that infernal silver with him.