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Chapter 102
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Beach, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Tourism and Authenticity
Power, Control, and Human Nature
War, Violence, and Escapism
Secrecy, Fear, and Paranoia
Summary
Analysis
The cutting up of the corpses lasts about half an hour. Afterward, Sal reads aloud the note that Richard left for Zeph and Sammy along with the map. She sounds like she doesn’t want to believe that Richard brought the strangers in. The others advance on Richard, separating him from Keaty and Françoise. Someone stabs him in the leg, not too hard, but soon he feels more stabs, from people behind him. Richard tries to get free and calls out to Daffy for help.
The stabs that Richard gets in his leg symbolize how the beach community is turning against him and trying to hold him back—he’ll need his legs in order to run away. Although Richard saw the beach community initially as a place where he could grow and prove himself, he now realizes how they are trying to drag him down.
Themes
