The Cartographers

These chapters emphasize the themes of Obsession and Fixating on the Past. Reality Versus Fantasy also plays an important role. In terms of symbolism, the Agloe Map as Obsession and Phantom Settlements and Trap Rooms as Secrets are the main foci, while the symbolism of the Compass Rose as Legacy and the Haberson Map as Control recur once more, and Peng Shepherd briefly references the contrast between Camera as Isolation and Photographs as Community.

Wally’s obsession with both Agloe and Tam explodes for the first time in the flashbacks outlined in this section. By blackmailing Francis into helping him gain control of all remaining Agloe maps, he ironically begins to lose control of the secrets that he is so desperate to keep from the world: the knowledge of Agloe and his desire for Tam. When Romi discovers Wally’s crimes and Bear attempts to use Wally’s obsession for his own benefit, these events push Wally into admitting his secrets and thereby losing control of them. He is also forced to face an unpleasant reality that contrasts with his fantasy, for just as Agloe the town is a manifestation of a cartographer’s fantasy, so too is the 1930 Agloe map a manifestation of Wally’s ongoing obsession. His jealousy of Tam’s other friendships implies a larger obsession with control in general, and this pattern is reflected in his compulsion to control access to Agloe by destroying all maps but one: the one he would have full control over.

In the present-day storyline, after the revelation that William Haberson is Wally, the symbolism of The Haberson Map as Control also connects to this obsession, for a “perfect map” over which Wally has complete control is the most extreme manifestation of his long-term control fantasy, and it is also an indication of Wally’s fixation on the past. In his mind, if he had only had the control over Agloe that he so desperately desired, Tam would not have died. Thus, the illusion of control is both a comfort and a curse, for it makes tragedies seem preventable and fuels the obsession of regretting that such tragedies were allowed to occur.

The tragic events that gave birth to Wally’s long-term obsessions also tie into the theme of Fantasy Versus Reality, for both the Agloe fire and Tam’s death simultaneously blur and reinforce the boundary between the two. For example, Agloe disappears when Tam is lost to the fire, and the Cartographers can no longer access the fantasy world they had been consumed by. However, even as they are thrust back into the reality of the mundane world, they must also face the grim reality that their fantasy created: Tam’s death. Because Agloe is not a real place, however, they are forced to make sense of Tam’s death for the rest of the real world by fabricating plausible circumstances to explain it, and so they burn the rental house, creating yet another fantasy in the process. Although the official story of Tam’s death is a lie—yet another Secret associated with Phantom Settlements—the group must make it a truth to explain the reality of what would otherwise be a tragic fantasy.

To a lesser extent, Felix and his team also come to terms with the contrast and blurring of fantasy and reality when Felix reveals Nell’s investigation with the Junk Box map and the existence of manifesting phantom settlements and trap rooms. This acceptance of magical realism allows Felix to finally observe the Sanborn trap room and break free of his initial inclination to control himself when he warns Nell of the police’s search for her. Nell, meanwhile, having accepted the reality of trap rooms and phantom settlements, is no longer ashamed of the fantastical elements of her work at Classic and has finally found a way to make sense of her own past and that of her family’s, thus laying her fixation with the past to rest.

Ironically, Bear is also fixated on the past from the beginning of the story, if in a different way from Wally or Nell. Rather than obsessing over a singular relationship from the past as Wally does with Tam or lamenting a singular past event as Nell does with the Junk Box Incident, the young Bear worries about the cohesiveness of the Cartographers as a whole. Because he loved their happy years as students and is terrified of the possibility that group might dissolve after graduation, this anxiety manifests in his decision to rent the Rockland house despite his financial insecurity. Accordingly, his obsession with keeping his mounting debt a secret from the others begins a chain reaction that culminates in the tragedy at Agloe: a situation that would have been entirely preventable without the phantom settlement. Thus, once again, trap rooms and phantom settlements are inextricably linked with the group’s secrets. Yet ultimately, Bear reconciles his life of secrets much more effectively than Wally, for he attempts to rectify his past mistakes by safeguarding the Cartographers’ legacy: Nell. Although the Cartographers disbanded after the fire, Bear supported Nell years later after the Junk Box Incident, providing her with a new career and encouraging her to continue to aspire to greatness. His protection and nurturing of her is represented by the Cartographer pen with the engraved Compass Rose from Tam, which, like Nell, he has cared for until he can pass on the Cartographers’ legacy to the next generation.

Finally, the symbolism of Camera as Isolation and Photographs as Community reappear briefly during William’s revelation of his identity as Wally: the photograph from Francis that he stole from Nell at NYPL (326). Although Wally is not in the photo, he associates himself with the Cartographers by revealing that he was the photographer (327). In this way, he simultaneously reveals his connection to the group, and separates himself from them: He created the memory, but was not part of it, further isolating himself—and his madness—from the tragedy he caused.