"Outpost of Progress" employs a straightforward and direct narrative technique quite different from the more complex and elaborate series of narrative perspectives that Conrad would use in such later works as Lord Jim (1900; see separate entry). In "Outpost of Progress," Conrad employs a method close to the omniscient narrator point of view of much nineteenth century fiction, especially that written before the innovations of Gustave Flaubert and Henry James.

The nature of Conrad's characters is revealed rather quickly and sardonically by Conrad's own narrative voice. Early on, Conrad's narrator tells the reader that both Kayerts and Carlier are rather shallow minds without imaginative resources.

Moreover, it is not long before this voice informs the reader that Kayerts and Carlier are not even capable of sticking diligently to routine duty tasks, because, as Conrad puts it sententiously, "To grapple effectually with even purely material problems requires more serenity of...