What does "the redeeming facts of life" mean in the sentence below?

Question

"I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station. In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence.

Answer 1

I think in this situation he is thinking of happier things in life not wanting to look at the confronting reality of what is in front of him

Answer 2

The good things about being alive.

Answer 3

No matter what the world throws at you and sometimes you do things to keep your job etc... but keep your faith in what you believe even in silence

Answer 4

I believe if you read the following passage which I found from a writer you will find your answer:  I believe the "redeeming facts of life" are actually  the value and integrity he places on his own life's work to have meaning because of what he does for a living because of what he does and what others do not

redeeming facts of life" (89). Here Marlowe

begins to explicate his emphasis on work and integrity as having value in themselves. In order to prevent becoming a part of the dusty muddle of the station, Marlowe decides that he must rely on physical labor. The other men in the station "[strolled] aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard." Marlowe continues to scrutinize the meaning of this apparent vagrancy, with their "absurd long staves" and the "taint of imbecile rapacity" accompanying the word 'ivory' (89). Marlowe's extended call for rivets so he could "get on with the work," again emphasizes his priorities. After an extended conversation with the brickmaker of the Central Station about Kurtz and the "gang of virtue," the only real question on Marlowe's mind is when he will get his rivets (95). Marlowe then expands upon his philosophy about work. "I like what is in the work -- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality -- for yourself, not for others -- what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means" (97). Paired with the aspects of other men in the novel which Marlowe identifies with, this element in the work is a kind of work ethic or integrity -- a sense of accomplishment and a testament to oneself that defines existence on another level than the dusty, aimless vagrancy of the company men.