Journey to the River Sea

The Value of Friendship is shown through the connection between Finn and Maia as both characters grow and mature on their respective journeys, and the novel uses third-person narration to reveal Finn’s change of heart and intensifying feelings of affection for Maia. Alone on his boat, Finn reflects on how his relationship with Maia has grown in trust and wishes she were there with him. The true depths of his feelings are revealed when he sees a wild creature and decides that the encounter is less interesting because she is not there to share it with him. The third-person commentary that “sharing was something everyone wanted to do” (141) emphasizes his isolation and articulates his shifting perspective, for in the throes of his newfound connection to Maia, he realizes that “being alone, which he had always enjoyed, turned into loneliness, which was a very different thing” (141). Their deepening bond therefore allows him to choose connection over isolation, and this contemplative moment foreshadows the ultimate decision of the two characters to pursue a life together.

Another impact of their friendship is Maia’s development from the isolation of orphanhood into relationships with those who will become her chosen family. Both Maia and Finn have lost their parents, and they recognize in each other the qualities of their lost loved ones. Both Finn and Maia’s parents shared a love of natural discovery, and this connection is emphasized when Finn shouts, “Look, Maia!” at the sight of natural wonders: an action that echoes his enthusiastic interactions with his father as they traveled through the jungle together. Similarly, Maia’s parents were explorers who took Maia to Greece when she was young. In light of the two protagonists’ backstories, the author uses omniscient narration to emphasize both characters’ grief over their parting; this mutual connection motivates Finn to return to Maia and highlights their compatibility with each other.

From a broader perspective, the dramatic tension of the Carters’ growing instability foreshadows the dramatic events of the housefire and its consequences, which make up the climax and falling action of the story in the last few chapters. Mr. and Mrs. Carter both ironically become obsessive consumers just as they are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and this irrational pattern of behavior further highlights the corrupting effects of Human Greed and Exploitation. The morbid humor of Mr. Carter’s collection of glass eyeballs likewise intensifies in a whimsical fashion as he switches from buying the eyeballs of famous heroes and instead buys “the left eye of a tramp found dead in a ditch at Wimbledon Common” (139); in this moment, even the collection itself ceases to hold any value beyond that of the very act of collection itself. Just as Mr. Carter increases his collecting activities, he decreases his standards and simply becomes obsessed with buying things for the sake of increased ownership. Likewise, Mrs. Carter also invests in a morbid version of hoarding, collecting more and more poison to eradicate pests, and even the twins’ obsession with money proves to be destructive as well, for it serves as the catalyst for the fire that nearly kills them all. The novel therefore exaggerates the family’s narcissistic behavior with dark comedy, and this pattern culminates in Mr. Carter’s return to the burning bungalow under the guise of saving Maia, whom he abandons to death in favor of saving his glass eye collection instead. The ridiculous portrait of the selfish Carter family heightens the tension of the dramatic turn of events and sets up the catharsis of their fall at the end of the book.