The Mosquito Coast

“I’m the last man!”

Charlie references a declaration his father often repeats. Allie casts himself in the role of survivor in what he believes is the imminent war in the United States. It is evidence of Allie’s individuality and self-assurance and his conviction that he will outmaneuver any possible threats by anticipating what others cannot.

“Your father’s the most obnoxious man I’ve ever met. He is the worst kind of pain in the neck—a know-it-all who’s sometimes right […] I’ve come to see he’s dangerous. You tell him that, Charlie. Tell him he’s a dangerous man and one of these days he’s going to get you all killed. Tell him I said so.”

Polski’s ominous foreshadowing acknowledges that Allie’s skillset makes him valuable to others and less likely to be discredited entirely because of his conduct. However, it also indicates that people outside the family can perceive the potential threats that Allie’s stubbornness and obliviousness represent.

“He was dark, I did not know him, and he watched me like a stranger, with curiosity rather than affection. And I felt like a stranger to him. We were two people pausing—one on a rock, the other on the sand, child and adult. I did not know him, and he did not know me. I had to wait to discover who we were.”

Standing on the rock in Baltimore, Charlie experiences a sense of detachment from his father. It demonstrates the callousness and disregard for his safety consistent with the challenges Allie presents to his son. Charlie’s sense of separateness portends the tremendous evolution of his character.

“I wished then that I had fallen off the shrouds and into the sea and drowned. They would have been sorry.”

After being retrieved from the kingpost, Charlie receives a cold reception from his father. Though his son’s life was in danger because of his demands, Allie expresses disappointment and assigns blame. His desire for his family to feel sorry is an expression of Charlie’s need for his value to be affirmed.

“If he dies, I thought, we are lost.”

Charlie experiences a sense of dread beginning at the opening of the novel, convinced that something terrible is going to happen to his family. In La Ceiba, it occurs to Charlie that his family’s survival is intrinsically linked to Allie’s.

“The longer I looked the more they seemed like a wild man and an angel, and this boat an example of the kind of life we led, plowing through dark water with black jungle on one side and deep sea the another, and moonless night above us.”

As they travel along the Mosquito Coast before proceeding upriver, Charlie offers this reflection as he pauses to observe his parents. This quotation is an example of the rich language he employs in his descriptions of the places and people around him.

“I’m not going to tell you who sent me, or why. And I’m not going to tell you who I am or what I aim to do. That’s just talk. I’m going to show you why I’m here. You go ahead and watch. And if you don’t like what you see, you can kill me.”

Speaking to the Maywits and Mr. Haddy upon their arrival in Jeronimo, Allie makes this promise, reveling in the rapt attention of his audience. Ever the performer, Allie is prone to uttering such grand and vague pronouncements. This quotation typifies his boastful, grandiose attitude and his lack of concern about how others perceive him.

“But father just laughed and said that it had been his intention to get us out of the States and save us. He had not thought that he would be saving other people as well. Yet that was what had happened. If he had not come here, these people would have been bone-idle, and the vultures would have made a meal of them.”

This is Allie’s assertion when Mother asks if he is “laying it on a little thick” in the amount of credit he is assigning himself. Allie’s response exemplifies the condescension and paternalism which characterize his opinion of those he views as his inferiors. Allie is narcissistically incapable of considering that his intervention in the lives of others could be anything but a significant improvement.

“What’s a savage? It’s someone who doesn’t bother to look around and see that he can change the world?

Allie makes frequent use of the term “savages,” and the term becomes a catchall, whether as a noun or an adjective, for anything that does not meet Allie’s approval. In this quote, Allie defines “savage” according to his perception. This proves to be inconsistent with his later usage of the term.

“[T]his was father’s head, the mechanical part of his brain and the complications of his mind, strong and huge and mysterious. It was all revealed, to me, but there was too much of it, like a book page full of secrets, printed too small. Everything fitted so neatly and was so well bolted and finely fixed it looked selfish […] and in that darkness were the joints and brackets of his mind.”

Climbing into Fat Boy, Charlie is filled with the sense that its interior is representative of his father’s mind. It is evident that in many ways Charlie is overwhelmed by his father’s intelligence and in awe of his ability to engineer and construct his inventions, but this quotation also indicates that Charlie realizes how complex and unfathomable his father’s mind is.

“He had never been a good listener. But he knew so much he did not have to listen.”

This is an example of Charlie’s competing perceptions of his father. His admiration and misgivings conflict with each other. This quotation reveals that, despite his mounting uncertainty, Charlie has not entirely abandoned his awe at his father’s wealth of knowledge.

“It was the way other people lived, with radios and schools and churches—and money. Yet I was happy here in the camp—happier than in Jeronimo. I liked this place for its secrecy and best of all because it was filled with things that Father had forbidden.”

Within The Acre, Charlie and the other children have managed to approximate experiences that they are denied by their father. Charlie’s desire to keep The Acre a secret indicates his understanding that it would somehow be corrupted or spoiled by Allie’s knowledge of it and show that he is satisfied that he has been able to afford himself a kind of rebellion.

“It was plain from where we sat that Jeronimo was a success. We had defeated the mosquitos, tamed the river, drained the swamp, and irrigated the gardens. We had seen the worst of Honduras weather—the June floods, the September heat—and we had overcome both.”

Charlie clings to evidence of his father’s fulfillment of his promises, embracing the temporary peace in Jeronimo that holds his doubts at bay. There are few opportunities for embarrassment in Jeronimo, as Allie occupies a position of status and is shown deference by nearly everyone they encounter.

“You feel a little like God.”

Though Allie shows contempt for those who hold religious beliefs, he revels in the sense of power he feels in holding the monopoly on ice supply in the region. Allie’s egotism runs unchecked throughout the novel. As he becomes more unstable, he becomes more megalomaniacal.

“On this downward path, in the tortoiseshell twilight, I thought of Father’s lie. I hoped he did not believe it, but how could he be rescued from repeating it?”

In the first chapters of the book, Charlie reveals the responsibility that he feels for his father. This is demonstrated again when his father fails to accurately comprehend the melting of his ice. Charlie expresses pity for his father for the first time. He wants to prevent the inevitable embarrassment he will feel on his father’s behalf and avoid the need to contradict his inconsistencies.

“They’re planning to fasten on us like they fastened onto those Indians. Remember those poor pathetic men, squatting in the dirt with their crazy mutts? Charlie, it was the Indians who were the prisoners!”

As he plans to trap the armed men inside Fat Boy and freeze them to death, Allie admits to his son that he made a mistake. He is astonished that he failed to correctly interpret the situation, which is ironic because he has misinterpreted several social situations since the novel began.

“He spoke as though something in his own head was breaking.”

Allie experiences an intense emotional reaction to the destruction of Fat Boy. Charlie’s simile captures the intense relationship Allie has formed with his invention and the connection that Charlie has evoked between the inner workings of Fat Boy and the mystery of his father’s brain.

“I asked her if Father had changed, and what did it mean? She said it was nothing—if he really had changed, he wouldn’t be talking so much about it. She said he was trying to keep our spirits up.”

As Allie begins to assert that losing Jeronimo has been a transformative experience, Mother has no illusions about Allie’s ability to change. After such a catastrophic event, Allie truly does not display any changes to indicate that he has adapted to his experiences, nor has he exhibited any such developments at any point in the novel.

“He said no more about the war in America or the loss of Jeronimo, which were for him the same thing. He spoke calmly of how we would begin again. He said those close calls had sharpened his wits…he talked wildly, but his talk was like creation, and on that downstream trip he never stopped […] he was very restless and hungry—seeming now less predictable than ever. But there was no man on earth more ingenious.”

Charlie tries to hold out hope that he should have faith in his father’s ingenuity and ability to recover from setbacks. Allie has always found a solution when circumstances have developed contrary to his plans.

“But though he was ambitious for his own comfort, he had never tried to cash in on his inventions—only to live a life that others might want to copy.”

Charlie attributes his father’s motivation to design and manufacture inventions as a means of insuring his own convenience. While others are impressed by his hardiness, Charlie attests to the fact that his father is not a survivalist at all but merely adept at devising his own means of providing creature comforts.

“Allie, you’ll kill us here!”

In their only extensive argument, Mother expresses uncharacteristic boldness and assertiveness in attempting to reason with Allie. Allie continues to deflect, and her distress does not faze him.

“Listen to me, it’s not a question of what you want. It’s what I want. I’m captain of this ship, and those are my orders. Anyone who disobeys them goes ashore. Your lives are in my hands. I’ll maroon you—all of you.”

When Mother attempts to prevent Allie from forcing Jerry and Charlie into the river to retrieve the propeller, Allie responds with a menacing threat. The family is aware of the authority Allie holds over them, but in this exchange, he makes it clear that he will not tolerate refusal, and that he is not opposed to imposing dire consequences to ensure his instructions are followed.

“We’re not going with you, not after those lies you told us. You made us suffer for nothing.”

This quote is Charlie’s first act of true defiance against his father. He not only refuses to obey a direct instruction but informs Allie that he knows him to be a liar. Charlie’s instincts for survival and self-preservation have culminated in his requisite confrontation.