50 pages • 1 hour read
Karen RussellSwamplandia
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Welcome to Stiltsville”
The Bird Man and Ava encounter difficult, choppy waters on their journey, and both Ava and the red alligator are nervous. The Bird Man decides that they will take cover for the night in Stiltsville, a grouping of houses on stilts that had been abandoned when the Parks department had taken over this portion of the Ten Thousand Islands. Although many of the houses have fallen into a state of disrepair and are not safe to enter, he finds one that still has a solid floor and the two make camp for the night. After dinner, Ava finds herself unable to stop talking, and she blurts out the entire story of Osceola’s mental decline, burgeoning interest in contacting the dead, and relationship with the ghost of Louis. The Bird Man listens kindly and attentively to her wild story. He asks her what she believes, and Ava has to admit that she is not sure. Later that night, she prays to a God who in some way resembles her mother and then drifts off to sleep. When she wakes in the morning, the Bird Man tells her that he encountered a fisherman who had seen a strange boat, and he thinks that it is time to resume their search for Osceola.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Drowning Chain”
Life has improved for Kiwi. He was finally able to send a check to his father, and he is doing well in his GED course. He calls the bank that manages Swamplandia!’s loan, and although they will not give him any information about his father’s account because he is not a signatory, they do agree to let him begin sending payments. He passes the CPR exam and begins his lifeguard training. The training is brief, and he soon commences a curiously exhausting new job. He divides his time between the pool, his studies, and sleep. One day, a girl gets her hair caught in the pool’s drain, and he jumps in the water quickly. He saves the girl and is praised for his heroics by everyone in the pool. It is the first time that he is called by his name (and not the emasculating nickname Margaret) since arriving at the World of Darkness.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Help Arrives, Then Departs”
The Bird Man and Ava eat lunch in a Chickee, a Seminole-style shelter built by a park ranger. The Seminoles had built many such structures during the Seminole wars, and after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 had robbed them of their territory. After lunch, they continue on their journey, passing through channels and mangroves and green waters full of fish. Ava asks the Bird Man about his strange feather coat, and he tells her that he’s worn it so long that he feels naked without it. He’d been interested in birds since he was a child, and Ava has a hard time picturing him as a young boy. They are often accompanied by buzzards.
Ava thinks often of her mother. She is overcome by nostalgia, and memories about her family come back to her in waves. She and her siblings had a deeply developed sense of familial identity, and she realizes now that many of her memories are actually family legends that she’d heard from her parents so many times she thinks that she experienced them firsthand.
She and the Bird Man are forced to carry their craft through a mosquito-infested patch of dry land. It is a difficult and unpleasant portage, and she is happy when it is over. Just then, a Park Services boat approaches them. The boat is manned by Whip Jeters, a ranger whom Ava knows. He recognizes her and looks quizzically at the Bird Man. The Bird Man claims to be Ava’s cousin and tells Whip that they are fishing. Although they can tell that Whip is dubious, he lets the pair go, telling Ava that her mother had been a wonderful woman and that it was a shame that she’d gotten cancer. Just before they leave, Ava asks if Whip has seen any dredging boats, and he responds that he hasn’t, and that the old dredgers are mostly no longer seaworthy, and it’s not likely that one would be out and about on the water. He worries that Ava saw some kind of smuggling boat up from Cuba, and wonders if he should radio it in. He tells Ava to be safe.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Kiwi Bigtree, World Hero”
A team of reporters arrives at the World of Darkness to interview Kiwi and Emily, the girl he saved. He tries to give his family some publicity by promoting Swamplandia!, but the reporter does not seem to have heard of the park, and he wonders if the article is going to be able to generate new interest in Swamplandia!. Later that night, his coworkers take him out drinking, and Emily is at the bar. The two get very drunk together and there is sexual tension between them in the car on the way back to the World of Darkness. The next morning, when Kiwi sees the article, he reads that he grew up on an “alligator farm,” (he knew the reporter hadn’t been listening to him!) and is chagrined to realize that there is no way that anyone reading will find out about Swamplandia! and want to explore the home of their new local hero. The article does drum up interest in the World of Darkness, however. Ticket sales increase, and customers are eager to talk to Kiwi about his heroics. The owners of the World of Darkness, seeking to capitalize further on Kiwi’s newfound celebrity, have decided to make him a pilot in the Four Pilots ride, and Kiwi finds out from his manager Carl that he is going to be enrolled in the park’s flight school. Kiwi gets a physical to confirm that he is in good health, and begins his training. Between the flight training program, which will take four months, and the GED course, Kiwi is busy, but he begins to miss his family. He tries to call Swamplandia! but is not able to get through. He begins to worry about Ava and Osceola, and what could be happening in Swamplandia! that he is not able to get in touch with anyone.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Ava’s Eclipse”
Ava and the Bird Man proceed on their journey. He is upset that she told Whip Jeters about the possible presence of the dredging boat, and Ava wants to turn back. When he is angry, the Bird Man resembles any regular person, a grumpy tourist even, and she is no longer sure that she trusts him, no longer confident in his mystical abilities. They reach the Calusa shell mounds that mark the entrance to the Eye of the Needle and barely manage to squeeze through. Ava spies one of her sister’s ribbons, and although she screams Ossie’s name her voice is lost in the raging wind, and the Bird Man does not hear her. She decides not to tell him what she has found. He seems so upset with her and she is nervous. The weather improves, and they continue on. At one point, Ava is sure that she sees someone, but the Bird Man refuses to stop, telling her that it was not Osceola. Ava protests, and the Bird Man slaps her. Stunned, Ava is silent. Then, she hears a radio playing “American Pie” in the background and sees what looks like people with knives. The Bird Man insists that they are in the underworld and these people are ghosts, but Ava is no longer sure that the Bird Man is being honest with her. He seems increasingly unhinged and keeps telling her that they will be in real trouble if they are caught together. She asks him if they are really in the underworld, and he is evasive. He tells her that they can still look for her sister if she would like. She worries that she is in real trouble.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Kiwi Rolls the Dice”
Kiwi heads to the Pa-Hay-Okee casino with Vijay and Leo from the World of Darkness. Although Kiwi is worried that the boys will not be allowed in, they all have fake IDs and they are not questioned. Inside, Kiwi is stunned to see his father as the emcee of a “Live Girls!” Contest, and he realizes that his father’s “business trips” to the mainland had probably never been about finding investors, as the Chief had claimed. He’d been doing odd jobs to supplement their income. The contest, which features aging women who are not particularly lively, is mortifying to Kiwi. It is clear that the Chief’s boss does not respect him, and although the female contestants tell Kiwi that everyone likes his father, he feels depressed. He asks one of the contestants to give his father an envelope full of money, but he is sure to leave before his father has the chance to see him.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
In this section of the novel, each of the Bigtree siblings undertakes a journey (of sorts) into the underworld. These treks, both real and metaphorical, speak to the theme of Coming of Age, for Ava, Osceola, and Kiwi will all learn from the trials and tribulations that they face along the way, and emerge wiser and more mature. Although the chapters here alternate between Ava’s first-person narration of her voyage with the Bird Man and those that (using third-person narration) tell Kiwi’s story, Kiwi’s Coming of Age is a major focal point, and he makes some real strides in his quests for education, stable employment, and a place within the social world of the mainland. There are many magical realist elements to the siblings’ underworld journeys, and the narrative increasingly feels grounded in the oral storytelling traditions and “tall tales” of the Florida Everglades. The Ten Thousand Islands continue to reveal signs of Indigenous life, and in this way the text continues to explore the theme of Environmental Destruction. The Bird Man also evolves as a character, and although he still seems sympathetic during the early stages of their journey, his role as an antagonist becomes clear after he and Ava pass through the Eye of the Needle.
Osceola has already left to join Louis in the underworld, and Ava finds evidence of her (her hair ribbon) after she and the Bird Man make it through the narrow channel between two large Calusa shells that mark the passage called the Eye of the Needle. Kiwi, too, continues on a journey (of sorts) to the underworld, although in his case it is the “underworld” represented by the World of Darkness theme park. The parallel, although individualized and unique journeys of each of the Bigtree siblings speak to the novel’s interest in Coming of Age. Osceola will have to learn the difference between truth and fiction (and healthy coping mechanisms), Ava will have to learn the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy individuals, and Kiwi will find his place within the worlds of work and education as well as his peer group. The ghostly atmosphere in these chapters, Osceola’s disappearance, as well as Ava’s increasingly bizarre experiences with the Bird Man, are elements of magical realism that make the boundary between reality and fantasy less certain; they also raise doubts about the reliability of the narrator. These elements of magical realism ground the text within a tradition of tall tales, myths, and legends that are often associated with the various cultures of Florida backwater spaces from the Ten Thousand Islands in the southwest, down through the peninsula into the Everglades. There is a long history in such spaces of embellished, outlandish storytelling meant to awe the listener and to make them question which portions of the story could be true. This kind of cultural mythmaking will feel familiar especially to Floridian readers and to those who grew up in cultures with strong oral traditions. An alternate title for this text could have been “Ava’s Tall Tales of the Swamp,” and this section particularly embodies that kind of storytelling.
Kiwi matures markedly in this section. He contacts the bank responsible for his family’s loan, and although they cannot give him information (he is not one of the loan’s signatories), they do allow him to make payments, and he begins to help his family financially. School goes well for him, and he begins to get the rhythm of formal education. He talks his way into a promotion, passes the CPR exam, and begins his lifeguard training. The raise he gets from this new position is modest, but it becomes clear that he is figuring out how to “climb the ladder” (171). Although it is coincidental that he happens to be lifeguarding when one of the park attendees loses consciousness under water, his calm, measured response to the situation allows him to swiftly jump in and save the girl, and he becomes, albeit briefly, a media star. Ever focused on his family, he initially hopes to generate interest in Swamplandia!, but once he realizes that the reporters have taken down his backstory sloppily, he switches gears and tries to use his celebrity to secure and even higher paying position: that of one of the pilots in the park’s new attraction. Although he has not been on the mainland long, he already shows increased maturity, and he is laser-focused on achieving his goals. He also sees his father working in a casino and realizes that there is more to the Chief than he had previously thought. Like Ava, part of his Coming of Age will be developing a sense of his father as a complex, whole person and not merely a parent.
As Ava and the Bird Man continue their journey, they come upon a series of Chickees, Seminole structures built originally as temporary shelter for traders and travelers, but also used by members of the nation during the Seminole Wars, fought between the Indigenous populations of the Ten Thousand Island and the settlers who sought to drive them from their homeland to make way for white communities and development of the swamp. Here again, the text (albeit obliquely) makes a nod towards Environmental Destruction and the history of Indigenous erasure that is inseparable from the history of the Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades regions.
As these chapters begin, the Bird Man still seems sympathetic. He listens attentively as Ava tells him the entire story of her family’s recent troubles, and he seems genuine when he asks her what she believes to be true about her sister, the underworld, and the presence of ghosts in their lives. It is not until the two meet Whip Jeters, a local park ranger known to Ava’s family, that his character takes a turn. He is angry with Ava for revealing the presence of the dredging boat, and admonishes her that the authorities, were they fully aware of the nature of their quest, would likely separate Ava not only from the Bird Man, but also from her family. Ava begins to see through his mask of mystery because, as she notes, when he is upset, he seems much more ordinary. She becomes increasingly uneasy in his presence, especially after she is sure that she sees people (live people) and he assures her that they are ghosts. The text does not offer any easy explanations about the nature of the Bird Man’s character shift, and readers are left wondering who he really is, what his intentions are, and why he appeared so innocuous when it seems increasingly likely that his intentions are malign.
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