47 pages • 1 hour read
Paul TherouxThe Mosquito Coast
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 14-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary
Charlie has been watching his father work on his latest invention, a large-scale version of the Worm Tub prototype. Construction attracts scores of visitors from the surrounding area. Locals are at first frightened of and intimidated by “Fat Boy.” Allie instructs Charlie to enter the chamber at the bottom and climb up through Fat Boy and out the top hatch. Inside the chamber, contorting himself through the convoluted network of jointed pipes and coils, Charlie suddenly has the impression that he is inside his father’s brain. He likens the complexity to something he cannot fathom, something beyond his comprehension.
Allie leaves Jeronimo to acquire the chemical compounds required to operate Fat Boy, and Charlie reflects on how quiet and peaceful the settlement has become since his departure. In his absence, Mother seeks out the Zambus and immerses herself in the opportunity to learn homemaking techniques from them. With the freedom to explore, the Fox and Maywit children happen upon a freshwater pool surrounded by edible plants, populated by animals, and tucked away unto itself. In this secret haven, which the children name The Acre, they set up camp and construct a society all their own, replicating the institutions and organizations which are forbidden in Jeronimo. They develop their own currency and set of rules, social expectations, and assign individual roles to be filled. Charlie depicts it as both a refuge from his father’s influence, and an opportunity for the children to find comfort in structure and consistency. For the first time, the Fox children can socialize with their peers.
Allie returns with the necessary supplies. Fueled and fully operational, Fat Boy produces the first block of ice in Jeronimo.
Chapter 15 Summary
Allie becomes determined to bring ice to a community that has not been infiltrated by missionaries. Allie, Charlie, Clover, and Francis Lungley make their way up the river to a town called Seville. Francis has insisted that Seville is as remote as can be. Allie complains the entire way as they paddle the circuitous route to the village. Traversing the river is a challenge. Winding at various widths, often in the opposite direction, it is thick with vegetation.
Allie is disgusted when people kneel and bow to them as they make their way along the river. He talks of altering the topography so that he might better traverse the river. When they reach Seville, the inhabitants hide from them at first, but then emerge, ragged and haggard. When Allie discovers that the village is not as remote as he would have liked it to be, he accuses Francis Lungley of betraying him. Allie is furious when, having evoked the name of Jesus Christ in frustration, the villagers of Seville begin praying. He storms off in frustration when he realizes that he has not found an untouched civilization after all, as the Sevillians begin to bicker about possession of the ice they have delivered.
With Jeronimo fully outfitted, the children’s chores have been reduced. They retreat to The Acre.
On a return trip to Seville with his father, Charlie and Allie find that the villagers have created a smaller, nonfunctioning version of Fat Boy in effigy. Allie is disgusted by its futility.
Chapter 16 Summary
By November, the Fox family have been living at Jeronimo for seven months. It now boasts a shower, a laundry, a sewage removal system, and a netting system for farming live fish. Fat Boy’s excess heat is diverted to incubate chicken eggs, and diverse crops grow on the small farm with the help of their irrigation system. In addition to his commitment to bringing ice to isolated populations further and further inland, Allie has begun to devote his attention to another obsession: the prospect of digging a hole deep enough into the earth to harness geothermal energy. People who had come from the surrounding areas to help at Jeronimo in exchange for ice and other goods are enlisted to assist with the digging of Allie’s hole. Allie experiments with creating larger and larger blocks of ice, melting individual pieces together to create solid forms. To test the ice’s portability, they create a giant ice pyramid for Mr. Haddy to tow behind his boat and transport to his acquaintances along the river. Reflecting on his achievements, Allie repeats the phrase, “You feel a little like God” (201-02).
Chapters 14-16 Analysis
In the establishment of Jeronimo, the rendering of ice, and his enthusiastic efforts to demonstrate his methods and share his philosophies, Allie has unwittingly come to resemble the missionaries he despises. Like Spellgood and Struss, Allie has come to a landscape with the belief that he possesses a concept which will improve the lives of others. By exposing them to his perspective and providing them with the means to practice his methods, he aims to both improve their lives and demonstrate his own superiority. Allie expects a certain reception and gratitude when he arrives at Seville. When he is upstaged by the presumption that he is a missionary, he becomes infuriated. Allie is an avowed atheist, and in his megalomania, he becomes increasingly inflated with the notion that he has superseded the accomplishments attributed to the Judeo-Christian God. Allie regularly expresses his disgust with the missionaries and those Hondurans who have converted to Christianity. People are willing to work in exchange for ice and for seeds, but Allie does not seem to appreciate the fact that single blocks of ice without refrigeration are largely useless in the jungle. His excitement over his ability to create the ice blinds him to the impracticality of the undertaking.
When everything seems to be going well in Jeronimo, Charlie seems to find a certain peace, particularly in his ability to put faith in his father. Charlie wants to believe in him, and because of his brilliance in isolated areas Charlie has a great deal of admiration for him and hope for what he can accomplish. Inhabitants and visitors to Jeronimo are subservient to Allie, they listen with interest (feigned or genuine), and Allie’s aspirations have so far been successful.
Still, the Acre shows that the children seek to build a place of their own outside of Jeronimo. The Acre represents the structure and order that the children are seeking. Charlie knows that he needs to hide things from his father. His hesitance to tell his father about The Acre, though he is so proud of it, shows his understanding that Allie is prone to condescension toward anything that he himself is not responsible for. The Acre also represents the first act of collaborative rebellion between Charlie and Jerry. The reader knows that Charlie has consciously decided not to tell his father about their settlement, and it is evident that Jerry has also chosen to preserve the secrecy of their sanctuary.
