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 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Typically, the Fox family gets what they need from local landfills, but Allie takes them on a rare shopping trip. Charlie is bothered by staring strangers. They enter a K-Mart, fascinating Charlie, overwhelmed by the abundance of products. Allie engages with the store associates. Each time a product is recommended, Allie finds fault, criticizing its low quality and country of origin. Allie uses xenophobic and racist commentary and takes a combative attitude with employees at the store, embarrassing Charlie. Eventually, they buy a significant number of outdoor supplies and seeds.
Charlie is sent to Polski’s house to deliver Allie’s letter of resignation. Polski asks Charlie to remain with him on the porch, and proceeds to tell the story of a convict named Moody, who was executed by hanging by the state of Massachusetts. On the morning of his execution Moody, who had been engaged in criminal activity of one type or another since childhood, asks only to speak to his father. His request granted, he draws his father in close to him on the premise of whispering, but instead bites his father’s ear off. This gesture is a punishment because Moody believes that his father is responsible for the trajectory of his life and his resulting predicament. Polski explains that he has come to believe that Allie dangerous and that he is going to get the entire family killed. Polski tells Charlie to tell Allie exactly what he said, but Charlie keeps their conversation to himself.
Chapter 7 Summary
The Central American workers Allie calls “savages” visit the Fox home to say their goodbyes. They give Allie a machete and talk about the influence he has had on them; they tell Charlie and his siblings that Allie is their father as well. Allie states that he would not have had the idea to embark on their forthcoming adventure had it not been for these men. Charlie is still unaware of what his father means, but Allie hints at the notion of seeking a more pure, simplistic existence. The following morning, the Fox family drives out of Hatfield, traveling several hours south until they reach Baltimore. When they arrive at a docked cargo ship called Unicorn, which Charlie first mistakes for a warehouse, Allie declares it their “new home.”
Before setting sail, the Foxes explore a small beach nearby, and Allie issues to Charlie the first of several challenges throughout the novel. Charlie must stand on a rock in the surf and attempt to maintain his balance as the tide rushes in. Allie declares that Jerry will have to follow Charlie’s attempt, and this emboldens Charlie to show up his younger brother. As he stands, beaten by the frigid surf, Jerry jeers, mocking Charlie, teasing that he’s going to fall. Though Charlie is successful, he returns to the group soaking wet, much to Jerry’s delight. Admonished by a man on the beach for letting Charlie walk barefoot on the glass ridden shore, Allie gifts him the family’s truck.
Chapter 8 Summary
Out to sea, the Foxes become acquainted with the other families traveling as passengers on board. The Bummicks, a large family unit, keep mostly to themselves. Gurney Spellgood, a prominent evangelical preacher, is returning to his mission with his wife and children. Spellgood and Allie clash over biblical quotations, and Allie privately expresses his feelings of contempt for the reverend. Emily, Spellgood's daughter, is close in age to Charlie, and she fixates on him, pestering him throughout their journey. She brags incessantly about her family’s lifestyle, particularly about those material comforts they enjoy and the influence her father holds. It through talking with Emily that Charlie learns where the ship is headed: the port city of La Ceiba on the coast of Honduras.
Allie divulges more information about their destination and his intentions over dinner with Captain Smalls. Allie shares that the Foxes are bound for the jungle of Mosquitia, an isolated inland tropical wilderness located upriver from the Mosquito Coast. Charlie infers from Mother’s expression that she hasn’t known any more about Allie’s plan than Charlie and his siblings. Captain Smalls is shocked and attempts to impress upon Allie the dangers and challenges that they will face. Allie is not deterred and begins to respond with his characteristically lofty proclamations. Captain Smalls remains cordial, but he has become wary of Allie’s stubbornness.
Chapter 9 Summary
As they sail, Charlie strikes up a friendship with the Captain, who invites him periodically to the bridge to see the navigational systems and operational equipment and observe how the vessel is operated. Emily Spellgood continues to seek Charlie out, pestering him with questions about his favorite TV shows, music, and pop culture icons. Charlie is embarrassed by his unfamiliarity with any of the references she is making. Allie banished all entertainment from the home, and Charlie blames his father for his inability to relate to Emily.
On deck, Allie issues another challenge to Charlie, and Jerry and the twins provide an audience. As a threatening storm gathers in the distance, Allie commands Charlie to climb the ship’s kingpost, enlisting the help of Charlie’s siblings in bullying and teasing him when he expresses hesitance. Despite his terror, Charlie ascends hundreds of feet, his grip on the sailcloth his only security. Charlie notes the rocking of the ship in the roughening waters and gazes down to the deck where his father isn’t even watching him. As he nears the top, Captain Smalls appears, furious, ordering a shipmate up to bring Charlie down. Allie blames Charlie for getting them “caught,” and asserts that if he had only climbed faster, they wouldn’t have been reprimanded. He points out that Charlie did not make it all the way to the top.
With the ship listing palpably, Allie confronts the Captain in front of all the other passengers. He demands to know what is being done; he demonstrates its imbalance and explains the gravity of the situation. The Captain insists that the matter is under control, but Allie berates and shames him until the Captain allows him to fix it. Working with the crew through the night, having fixed the ship Allie begins crowing about his leadership capabilities, claiming that he could have incited a mutiny if he so desired. Charlie believes that his father would not have made such an effort to shame Captain Smalls had Charlie and the Captain not befriended one another. The Captain is embarrassed and doesn’t appear again, but Allie has garnered newfound respect from the other passengers.
Chapters 6-9 Analysis
These chapters serve in large part to demonstrate the extent to which Charlie is as ignorant of his father’s intentions as he is of his father’s history. While Charlie has apprehensions about his father’s judgement, it doesn’t occur to him to decline to go along with him, to insist on being informed of their plans, or to raise any objections. Neither does anyone else in the Fox family, who either blindly trust Allie or fear questioning him. Charlie does not explain what happened to Mother and the children while his father was hospitalized, but Mother’s willingness to place her faith in Allie indicates she was not dissuaded by their first attempt at self-sufficient living and has not insisted on maintaining the children in an environment of predictability and stability.
Allie struggles with social interactions on the boat and with Polski, but he has enough social etiquette to know that he can’t speak to his boss or his fellow shipmates the way that he speaks to people in the service industry. It is obvious that he craves an audience, thrives on shock value, and requires reactions to accrue the attention that he so desires. He enjoys making a scene and is especially confrontational and combative with service employees. It is because he knows he has a captive audience who must react with diplomacy due to the behavior parameters mandated by their professional roles.
The most independent of thinkers, Allie has ironically discouraged independence in his wife and children at every opportunity, instead constructing an existence through which they are forced to rely upon him for everything. The lack of preparation for and practical knowledge required for survival in the world outside Allie Fox would place them in a disadvantaged position were any of them separated from him. Allie isolates his children from educators and peers who might expose them to information and opinions contrary to his doctrine, and in preventing those experiences, he limits their opportunities to recognize his contradictions and faults. Allie’s family is expected to venerate and emulate his assertions, not to develop their own opinions. The children are rewarded for agreeing with him, and Allie pits them against each other, forcing them to vie for his approval and affections. Parroting and validating Allie garner them preferential treatment.
Charlie’s sense of difference is largely calibrated by the social responses that others have to his father. What escapes Charlie, who fixates on the discrepancies between the lives of himself and Emily Spellgood, is the significant similarity between the two. Emily is as heavily swayed by the beliefs and attitudes of her father as is Charlie by Allie, but she has had more exposure to varied external, positive influences than Charlie has. Though her worldview is similarly shaped by the intensity of her father’s convictions, his strict adherence to his belief system, and his fervent insistence that those around him share it, her engagement with the world sets her apart. Interestingly, her varied experience has only served to reinforce her beliefs that her father is right, while Charlie, more isolated, has become more uncertain as time passes.
Charlie’s relationship with the Captain provides additional insight into his character. Even in the brief time they have known each other, Captain Smalls shows the same protective instinct which Tiny Polski demonstrated in the beginning of the novel. Both men likely realize there is little they can do to protect Charlie, but they ensure that they prepare him as well as they are able. Allie, for his part, seeks to maintain his dominance over Charlie and discourages him from being influenced by anyone but himself. He devalues others in front of his son, especially men in leadership roles. Similarly, he pits his children against each other, an attempt, whether conscious or not, to ensure his children do not ally with each other against him.
