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Travel as Escape, Narrative Strategies, etc...

Submitted by woahhh its meagan on Tue, 10/28/2008 - 01:51

In The Mosquito Coast, Allie uses travel as a means for escape. However, this attempt backfires when he realizes that the problems he faced back in America also manifest themselves in the strange new country they move to. Allie's overtly cynical views on America's "downward spiral" which lead him to search for means of escape forces his family into the roles of outsiders. By using Charlie as the narrator, the author portrays this view of the family as outsiders and utilizes a more objective lens through which to examine Allie's motives and decisions. Because the family is kept in the dark most of the time, the inquisitive perspective of Allie's 13 year old son reflects the family's misgivings as a whole, and keeps the reader at a distance as well. Allie is so stubborn about his decision to relocate that he can not see/ refuses to see the dangers and downsides of the move. His family on the other hand, sees the consequences of Allie's decision constantly: in the dingy and dangerous La Cieba (where they first arrive), in the roads that lead to nowhere, and the dead animals that litter these roads.

Allie's stubbornness proves to be his downfall. Because he fails to realize that travel is not a permanent means of escape, he becomes oblivious to the dangers he is subjecting his family to. Because the reader experiences the story through the eyes of Charlie however, the reader is made aware of the impending danger, and this narrative perspective serves as a sort of foreshadowing effect.

Back to travel. Allie sees the grass as greener on the other side. His intense negativity toward his own country compels him to escape it, and by doing so, this negativity is replaced by intense optimism upon arrival in Honduras. Allie moves from one end of the spectrum to the other when it comes to travel, which proves to be dangerous. He sees Honduras as a place of unlimited opportunity, while his family is aware of the dangers of the unknown country. Eventually his stubbornly opportunistic view of the family's new home is met with tragedy, proving that Allie's attempt to escape what he saw as a corrupt country only landed him in one equally as dangerous, just in different ways.

(sorry this is so... stream-of-consciousness-y?)

I like your point about how

Submitted by stella on Wed, 10/29/2008 - 22:28.

I like your point about how Allie goes from intensely negative to intensely optimistic when they move and refuses to understand that Honduras is just as dangerous. That example with the dead animals works really well for the family's experience. He puts them in danger that I think is more immeadiate than America's corruption, but he's too stubborn to see it.