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Chapter 61
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
Keaty wants to spend some time alone, so Richard goes by himself to see Étienne and Françoise. In the longhouse, Richard sees that the effects of the food poisoning are even worse than he expected. He finds Étienne asleep and Françoise in a lot of abdominal pain. She knows someone in Sumatra who died from bad shellfish, but Richard tries to reassure her and brings some water.
Life at the beach has largely been comfortable, and the campers seem to have considered themselves safe from death or serious injury. The mass outbreak of food poisoning disrupts that comfortable life and forces everyone to consider darker thoughts that they repressed, revealing how fragile the beach’s utopia really was.
Active
Themes
