Individual discoveries from last class

Below I examine the passage that spills from page 56 to 57 (13 lines up from the bottom of 56 at "...I had taken up my binoculars..." to the end of the first paragraph on 57 at "...jocose dream of that eternal slumber")

- binoculars/glass = another lense --> symbolically connected to indecipherability - the binoculars help him decipher the heads on stakes, but do the binoculars actually help him access the truth (for example, about Kurtz)? NOT REALLY - most of the delayed decoding occurs without the use of binoculars, including the cipher-->russian, sticks-->arrows, poleman lazy-->poleman dead, shoes warm-->blood...
-"limit of forest at each side" -->Marlow = foreign (outside "limits" of forest)
-"there was no sign on the face of nature of this amazing tale" (of the natives hiding in the bushes)--> personifies nature - fits into "mother nature" theme in which nature shelters and protects natives. By metaphorically comparing natives hiding in bushes to an "amazing tale," Marlow augments the theme of being in a "dream"/"nightmare"
-"the woods were unmoved like a mask-heavy like the closed doors of a prison" - mask = covering truth, prison = moral underpinning to isolation-->indecipherability
-"the woods....looked with an air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation" (mention patience as on pg 33)
-"the appetite for more ivory got the better of-what shall i say-less material aspirations" positive phrasing (doesn't say straight out that Kurtz = greedy) suggests ambivilance towards Kurtz and inability to take risks involve with judging
-"Oh [Kurtz] is bad, very bad" (says the Russian) - the Russian is most likely talking about the state of Kurtz's health (since he seems to glorify Kurtz as someone who is eloquent), but the wording is unusual, and particularly poingant in light of Kurtz's threats to the Russian's life (even though the Russian helped nurse him back to health and is his...erm..."friend")
-"You remember I told you I had been struck at a distance by certain attempts at ornamention, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place" -->to my knowledge, he doesn't actually mention his being "stricken" (surprised) by the ornamentation. On pg 52 he mentions ornamentation, but not his surprise. This reveals a rift between the communication he thinks he has and the reality of his communication. He also degrades the ornamentation by calling it "attempts at" and degrades the land by calling it destroyed
-"throw my head back as if before a blow" simile comparing his physical reaction to the heads on stakes to the physical reaction to a blow-->even though he says he is not shocked by the sight, his physical reaction suggests he is effected by it, in ways that neither he nor we percieve
-"but at all events for such ants as were industrious enough to climb the pole" (mention ants just like in Marlow's description of the natives)

QUESTIONS I HAVE (and would appreciate your help with):
-is it significant that the heads on the stakes face towards the house, giving the ppl inside the more "impressive" view? if so, how?
-"a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eteran slumber." native's narrow white line of teeth parrallels European narrow white cotton string? Help with this line?!