SOURCE: Miller, Norma. “All is Vanity under the Sun: Conrad's Floppy Hat as Biblical Allusion.” Conradiana 30, no. 1 (spring 1998): 64-7.

In the following essay, Miller maintains that the image of the floppy hat at the end of “The Secret Sharer” is linked to certain biblical allusions from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

In re-reading “The Secret Sharer” by Joseph Conrad in preparation for a teaching assignment, the final conditions surrounding the floppy hat, namely its return appearance to guide the narrator's ship to safety, dredged up a homily from my childhood. In its vulgar voice (no doubt in confusion with the callous harangue attributed to Marie Antoinette), it echoed, “Cast your bread upon the waters and it will come back cake.”

A popular book of proverbs led me to Ecclesiastes 11:1 which reads, “Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.” Later that summer, I...