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MacWhirr, the protagonist of "Typhoon," is a simple character whom critics find perplexing. Invariably he wears a brown hat and a brown suit, and this is of significance because brown is the color of earth. MacWhirr is earthy, but he is not an "imperceptive clod." For, MacWhirr's mind is enlarged in the storm that washes his hat off his head. The head, seat of spirit and power, needs protection and his loss is an affront to MacWhirr, but it results in changed ideas about the forces of nature, the value of human life, the wisdom of books, and in an imaginative handling of the coolies' money.
Early in the novel there is mention of a "mysterious side" to life and Jukes, swept off his feet, exclaims "My God!" He does so four times. C.G. Jung says that "four" symbolizes the parts, qualities and aspects of the One. This suggests a connection between Jukes's exclamations, the effort he makes, and the confidence he derives from finding his captain, for MacWhirr's earthy receptivity renders him an agent of transcendence.
Transcendence in Conrad is more inclusive than the Judeo-Christian concept of it. The typhoon at the winter solstice involves the myth of sol invictus, and the white elephant in the flag is solar. With it Buddhist elements enter, inasmuch as a white elephant announced the birth of Gautama Buddha. "Nan-Shan," 'South' and 'mountain', also the monastery of Buddha's Four Noble Truths ("life is suffering; suffering has a cause; suffering can be eliminated; there is a path to that elimination") explains the Chinese coolies' peaceful conduct in the end. Light wins, but greyness persists and with it the inner space in which the mystery that has touched the lives of those men is accommodated.
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