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Chapter 1
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
Richard is in a backpacker-friendly part of Bangkok, Thailand, called Khao San Road. There, he will hear of an unusual beach. When he first arrives, he comes across a man that he thinks is a “heroin hippie,” a typical type of person who travels around India and Thailand doing drugs. The man silently points to a guest-house to stay at. The house is shoddy but sufficient for what Richard is looking for.
As the novel properly begins, it reveals that narrator Richard thinks of himself as both a veteran traveler and an expert on drug culture. While Richard sees the “heroin hippie” as a glamorous figure who knows the truth about the local area, the hippie is in many ways as much a tourist in Asia as Richard is. This establishes early the limits of Richard’s perspective as a narrator.
Themes
Richard sees some of the other people staying in the house, including a teenaged French couple (Étienne and Françoise). He finds his room and goes to sleep. He wakes at 2:00 a.m. to the sound of someone else stumbling around on the other side of the mosquito netting that surrounds Richard. Richard hears the man say “bitch,” then realizes it might be “beach”—the man is a Scottish man with an accent. All of a sudden, the man accuses Richard of listening, even though he can’t see Richard through the mosquito netting. Richard admits that he’s heard the man ranting to himself about a beach.
Although the novel is set in Thailand, most of the people Richard ends up interacting with are from Europe. Despite his limits as a narrator, Richard seems to recognize that there is something strange about going to Thailand and spending so much time with Europeans. Still, he has not figured out a better way to travel yet. The fact that Richard struggles even to understand the Scottish man, when Scotland is much closer to Richard’s home of England, shows how he is still naïve about other parts of the world.
Themes
The Scottish man gets angry at Richard for listening, but Richard tries to explain he wasn’t doing it on purpose. Eventually the man leaves him alone. Richard lies alone in the dark. In the other room, he hears the French couple (Étienne and Françoise) having sex.
Richard feels that other people around him must be having more interesting lives, whether it’s the Scottish man raving or the French couple having sex. This is what motivates him to search for somewhere more authentic than the touristy, backpacker-friendly road he begins on.
Themes
