Under the Volcano can be interpreted as a product of a compositional strategy which is common to the stream of consciousness novels. It encompasses a twofold procedure: first, the choice of techniques con- tributive to and mimetic of psychic chaos and second, the use of integra- tive elements which give the novel an intelligible form. By bis choice of characters (especially Goeffrey Firmin), a society falling apart and geographical cleavage (barranca), as well as through his imagery of exaustion and ruin, Lowry creates the disintegrative movement of his novel; the integrative elements are the unity of time, place and action and, of particular significance, repetition. The antinomy and juxtaposition of the two dominant images — the barranca and the volcanoes — confirm that this reading of the work is not arbitrary.
