Galapagos

The surviving generations on Santa Rosalia continued for some time with the traditions of marriage, which caused “many other sorts of heartbreak” (41). Eventually, they stopped. The narrator blames the problems of marriage on the oversized brains of previous generations of humans. Zenji and Hisako have problems in their marriage because Hisako is annoyed that one of Zenji’s workers programmed Mandarax to teach the art of flowering arranging, known as ikebana. Hisako’s self-respect has been “severely crippled” (42) because her husband’s machine can teach the subject in which she specializes, and it can do so in 1,000 different languages. Zenji lies and claims that he programmed Mandarax to know ikebana as a gift to a woman named Mrs. Onassis, a passenger who was slated to come on the cruise but never arrived in Ecuador. The narrator believes that lying—which doesn’t exist in his time—is another problem caused by the big brains of humans. He describes his father, who was a science fiction writer.

Andrew waits in his room with his daughter, Selena. He spent the day buying distressed Ecuadorian assets, and he wants his daughter to hear him “doing business” (45). Selena inherited her blindness from her mother, who died in childbirth. Andrew buys any property he can in Ecuador using money borrowed from an American bank, as American dollars are the only currency still worth anything in people’s minds. The Ecuadorians, desperate for food, are willing to sell him almost anything. Andrew orders expensive steaks to the room as soldiers set up military perimeters around the hotel and the cruise ship, which are stocked with “delicious meals” (46) for the rich passengers. While delivering the steaks to the room, the young, well-educated bartender Jesus Ortiz dreams about being rich one day—and when he sees Selena, he immediately falls in love. Andrew lays on the bed, unaware of the revealing nature of his outfit. Selena’s seeing-eye dog, Kazakh, sits by the baggage rack.

Andrew instructs Ortiz to leave the steaks on the floor for Kazakh. He’s unaware of the “outrageous insult” (49) this is to the hungry Ecuadorian. The narrator changes the subject, talking how, in the future, humans evolve past the need for teeth. Ortiz does as commanded, and Andrew tells him to “get out of here” (50). Andrew’s heartlessness shocks the narrator. Ortiz leaves the room in shock. He, like many of his fellow Ecuadorians, have long associated wealth with morality. Andrew’s behavior shocks Ortiz so much that it immediately changes his perspective: He previously saw the hotel guests as “minor deities” (51) but now sees them as villains. The narrator describes how Siegfried and Adolf share an inherited genetic defect that means they may one day develop Huntington’s disease. They spent their lives “expecting to go crazy at any moment” (52), just as their father did when he killed their mother. Siegfried’s tendency to developing Huntington’s disease manifests that night. He feels his brain swelling and worries that he may be losing his sanity. He continues to talk to Wait at the bar. Ortiz wanders to the military perimeter around the hotel. Outside, hungry people stare at him, “hoping against hope that he might have food for them” (53). After wandering around the hotel in a daze, he eventually convinces himself to cut the telephone lines to the hotel.

Bobby King is an American businessman who has offices in Manhattan. He planned the Nature Cruise of the Century, which is now on the brink of “collapse” (54). He looks at the six-person guest list, which is not, as he planned, composed of “newsmakers and trend-setters of the highest potency” (55). Months ago, he spoke on the telephone to Mary in an attempt to discover whether she or Roy were newsworthy in any way. Mary explained that the students in her senior class were planning to dedicate their yearbook to her, giving her the nickname “Mother Nature Personified” (56). The narrator agrees that this is a suitable nickname because, in the future on Santa Rosalia, she will “keep life going on and on and on” (57).

Bobby King knew about the death of the narrator. The narrator was a workman at the factor that built the Bahia de Darwin, but he was “killed during the building of the ship” (58). King didn’t publicize this detail out of fear of superstition. Of the hotel guests, King is really familiar only with Andrew, Selena, and Kazakh. Zenji, Hisako, and Wait are all travelling under false names. Mary’s Army fatigues bear the name of their previous owner, someone named Kaplan, so Wait refers to her by this name. Even when they later marry on the deck of the Bahia de Darwin, he assumes that her name is Mary Kaplan. King remembers meeting Andrew and Selena in New York at a restaurant. They were dining with Mrs. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, who is “the most admired female on the planet” (59), and a Russian dancer named Rudolf Nureyev, who was her escort that evening. Andrew’s description of the ecological damage that unaccompanied tourists did to the Galapagos Islands convinced Mrs. Onassis to sign up for the cruise. The narrator notes that Andrew’s concern for the environment is pure hypocrisy. In fact, he plans to use the cruise to convince Zenji to sign the business contract. He worries that Zenji might feel too “trapped” if they made the same trip on Andrew’s private yacht.

In convincing Mrs. Onassis to book a ticket on the cruise, King recommended that she watch a nature documentary about “the lives of blue-footed boobies on the island” (62)—the same documentary that Mary showed her students. The birds would eventually become a staple food source for the stranded cruise-goers.

Mary’s students wrote poems or essays based on the nature documentary to earn extra credit. Despite some of the more joking responses, Mary suggested that they interrogate the question of whether the courtship dances of the birds are similar to religion or art. The narrator notes that these birds have “not changed one iota in a million years” (65).

Mrs. Onassis signing up for the cruise leads to a huge increase in ticket sales. The only non-famous passengers are Roy and Mary, who are practically forgotten. As a result, they miss out on many of the “free gifts”—such as luxury flights and invitations to state dinners—that the other guests receive. Roy and Mary also don’t receive the notice from the US State Department that advises “American citizens not to travel in Ecuador at the present time” (66) due to the economic crisis. His guest list decimated, King reflects on his prodigal marketing talents. He turned the Nature Cruise of the Century into the most popular tourist event in the world. He made Adolf von Kleist, the captain of the cruise, into a celebrity who appeared on American talk shows. In an act of “gallant formality,” King contacts the remaining famous guests to tell them the cruise is cancelled. He contacts Dr. Teodoro Donoso, Ecuador’s ambassador to the United Nations, and they discuss the cancelled cruise and the Kanka-bono people, a group native to Ecuador whom many people now assume are extinct. The narrator notes, however, that “in a matter of less than a century the blood of every human being on earth would be predominantly Kanka-bono” (70).

Without the promise of the celebrities arriving for the Nature Cruise of the Century, the people of Ecuador no longer have anything “to look forward to” (71). The problem of expecting to be rescued, the narrator explains, is no longer a concern a million years into the future. In its evolved, aquatic form, humanity’s population is “nice and manageable” (72) because of sharks and killer whales. As a result, no one starves. At her school, Mary was in charge of teaching students about sex. Most school years featured at least one unwanted pregnancy. Mary and Roy couldn’t conceive a child—but after 10 years on Santa Rosalia, the narrative reveals, Mary will become even more familiar with the process of human reproduction.

The narrator follows Captain Adolf von Kleist as he rides a taxi toward the Bahia de Darwin. The narrator confesses that he didn’t know that Adolf would become “the sire of all humankind” (73) or that most humans would be wiped out. The narrator chooses Adolf because he’s curious about Adolf’s military uniform. He’s surprised to find Adolf thinking about meteorites like those that wiped out the dinosaurs. Adolf believes that humans will be wiped out in a similar manner. The narrator empathizes with Adolf’s sense of meaningless as he’s driven through the city: The narrator felt similar after he “shot a grandmother in Vietnam” (74) because she killed members of his platoon during the Vietnam War. The narrator observes Adolf in his largely ceremonial role as captain. Rather than run the intricate details of the ship, Adolf’s job is mostly to entertain the important passengers. Unaware of the change in plans, Adolf prepares for the cruise to depart. Despite learning that some crew members didn’t show up for work, Adolf is confident that “everything will turn out for the best somehow” (75).

Adolf’s appearances on American talk shows were the first thing that made Mary laugh after Roy’s death. The narrative reveals that to her surprise, her knowledge about the Galapagos Islands will prove far more thorough and useful than that of Adolf after she and the others are “marooned” (76) on Santa Rosalia. She remembers teaching her students about the different types of finches that once fascinated Charles Darwin. Her knowledge of these finches allowed her to identify their new home as Santa Rosalia based on Darwin’s research into them.

Bobby King leaves his office. At the same time, Zenji leaves his hotel room after arguing with Hisako. He runs into Andrew, whom he regards as “the cause of all his troubles” (79) and uses the Mandarax to tell Andrew to leave him alone. Zenji runs out of the hotel to escape his oppressor. Andrew follows, insisting that he can help. Siegfried tries to shout a warning to them. Onboard the Bahia de Darwin, Siegfried’s brother, Adolf, takes a shower. Adolf’s first mate, Hernando Cruz, has a far better understanding of the ship and its crew than Captain Adolf does. The narrator refers to Cruz as “the real captain” (80). Cruz watches the other ships in the bay and thinks about the economic crash that rendered his life’s savings worthless. Despite his professional loyalty to the ship, Cruz decides to abandon the Bahia de Darwin and return to his family. As a result, Adolf is left completely in charge even though he knows nothing about running a ship.