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Chapter 34
Themes
and Colors
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 stares into the water at the coral, fixating on it as though it’s a Rorschach test. He hallucinates Daffy Duck beside him, who has found a way to stop the bleeding in his wrists by tying cloths around them. Richard congratulates Daffy for how well he helped set up everything at the beach, but then they shake hands, blood spurts from Daffy’s wrists again. Daffy apologizes, but Richard gets him to admit that he planned the blood spurting as a prank. Daffy asks if Richard and Jed are planning to bring back anyone from “the world” to “the beach,” but Richard hadn’t even considered this. Eventually, Daffy disappears beneath the surface of the water.
The Rorschach test that Richard sees in the water reflects how coming to the beach is about self-discovery for him. The blood that continues to come out of Daffy is a reminder to Richard about the dark sides of the beach, but Richard continues to try to remain ignorant. In his hallucination he sees Daffy’s bleeding as a prank, not as something serious, which could reflect more about the way Richard views the world and fails to take violence seriously than it does about Daffy himself.
Active
Themes
