The Explorer

“The three smaller trees did not have roots. They were logs, twenty feet high, each carefully leaned against the central tree; he could see where they had been hacked, with an ax or a machete. Ferns had grown—or been planted, Fred thought—at their base, disguising the place where the cut showed.”

Vivid, detailed descriptions illuminate the setting and provide a clear, undisturbed picture of what the world looks like to Fred. These details lead the reader to come to the same conclusions as the story’s protagonist and reveal the logic behind his suspicion. This moment also foreshadows the eventual meeting with the explorer.

“Something in Fred was beginning to glow: under the sun, and the cry of the birds, and the expanse of vivid green around them. It was huge, and dizzying.

It felt like hope.

Either that, he thought, or concussion.”

Fred’s attitude begins to shift from fear to excitement and eagerness to explore. Nature’s beauty overwhelms and inspires him, igniting a passion for exploration that was previously dormant within him. Dark humor points to what may or may not be a serious injury in Fred; thankfully, he turns out to be largely unharmed by the crash.

“Soon the grubs lay in a pinkish, writhing pyramid. Fred tried to feel grateful that they had any food at all. He failed, badly.”

The descriptive language here emphasizes the disgusting nature of the food the children must eat. This is a relatively low-stakes, humorous example of Perseverance and the Drive to Survive.

“Con struck again, and again and again until her fingers were bleeding.”

Con’s perseverance surprises everyone, as she initially comes across as somewhat spoiled and well-to-do. Instead, Con turns out to have the same inner drive to explore that Fred has, and a need to prove herself beyond what her family back home expects her to be.

“It was not, all in all, an easy night. Fred waded through his dreams until morning and woke feeling like he’d been kicked in the stomach.”

Fred experiences nightmares during his time on the island, and these serve as a window into the thoughts that he refuses to utter aloud. Fred worries about being abandoned by his father and considers the possibility that his father will not want him back. For Fred, dreams and nightmares are more than just a passing experience: They feel real and impact his mental state even after waking.

“The eel was immense. It looked like a deep-gray snake, as long as a grown man, winding in and out of the weeds.”

In a particularly tense moment, Fred is pursued by a massive electric eel in the Amazon River. It is one of many experiences that warn the children just how close they are to dying at any given moment, and why Perseverance and the Drive to Survive matter so much.

“I liked that it might be all right to believe in large, mad, wild things.”

While recovering from pneumonia, before the plane crash, Fred was inspired by the stories of men who explored the Amazon and braved the unknown. These stories carried him through a difficult and isolated time in his life, giving him hope that his life could have meaning and purpose. This was initially how Fred developed his passion for exploring.

“The animal on the branch let out a mew like a cat. It was gray brown with a cream face, a doglike snout, and immense black eyes. Its arms were long and chicken-bone thin, ending in curved claws. It was small enough to cup in your hands.”

The sloth that Max finds in the tree becomes an essential member of the team. In this initial meeting, Abacaxi is compared to both a dog and a cat, emphasizing his vulnerability and tameness. He is helpless and alone, much like the children themselves. It was this commonality that drew Lila to want to rescue him.

“The honey worked on them like medicine. Lila sat up straighter. Color came into Con’s cheeks. The taste of the honey was absolutely astonishing: sweet and earthy and wild.”

Things that were once taken for granted become luxuries to the children after several days of hunger and desperation in the jungle. Small moments of joy like succeeding in collecting the honeycombs propel the children forward and give them hope and strength.

“He had never wanted anything as much as he wanted to launch the raft down the river to find the X. He needed to know what it was to be an explorer. There was another kind of hunger in his gut that had nothing to do with food: It was terror and possibility, fused together with hope.”

Perseverance and the Drive to Survive, combined with Fred’s desire to explore the unknown, is what gives him the courage to take risks and be bold in the face of danger and great challenges. Fred’s motivation is complex—born out of feelings of inadequacy that he experienced at home and at school. He is eager to prove that he is something more.

“It didn’t occur to anybody not to trust one another now, he thought. They had become a pack. Or, an expedition, he corrected himself. That was what you called a group of explorers.”

Though the group initially did not know or even like one another, they quickly bond and learn that they must not only work together but trust one another if they are to survive. Fred’s mentality shifts from one of survival to one of exploring and approaching new experiences with excitement and openness—just like an explorer.

“On the fourth day, the river began to change.”

The group has fully embraced their current situation and the way that they navigate the river as a unified team speaks to how the children are learning from the extreme circumstances they are in. The river changes as the children begin to change.

“Fred looked at the man. He was fairly sure Lila was right, but it seemed risky to assume, of a man who used teeth for buttons, that he was joking.”

Meeting the explorer is a mystifying and nerve-wracking experience for the children: Despite finding many objects manufactured in England, they did not expect to find a living English person in the jungle. The explorer presents himself aggressively and as someone who does not want company; when he threatens the children, they cannot assume he is joking like an adult back home might.

“There were holes in the green scattered everywhere, where the sun burst through in bright light, and one vast gap, just above the statues, where the stones shone yellow. Directly under it, a single tree stood, burned of all leaves. Perhaps by the sun, Fred thought, or a very small forest fire.”

The imagery of the canopy and the ruined city are stunning and vivid, emphasizing the sheer precious beauty of the setting. The holes in the canopy, it turns out, were put there by the explorer when his plane crashed, and he now works to help them grow back. There is also a strong sense of mystery and intrigue as the children do not know what to expect from this new discovery.

“You wish to invite the world to come and stare; you gamble on the morality of the world at large.”

The explorer occasionally diverges into a more philosophical perspective, particularly when the issue of keeping the ruined city a secret comes up in conversation. He criticizes Fred for the underlying motivations Fred has in wanting to tell the world about the ruined city, and he lacks faith in humanity’s ability to treat nature with respect.

“There was a quality in this place that worked like flint on his insides: It was the light, and the vastness of it, and the sun, and the green. He could see why other people might feel it was too green, too loud, too endless, too much; but for him, it felt like a trumpet call to a part of him he had not known existed.”

Like the explorer, Fred feels more at home when he is out in the unknown, vast wilderness. While many people would feel overwhelmed, lost, or lonely, Fred feels drawn to the extreme and to adventure itself.

“Extraordinary things are rarely simple.”

In this deceptively straightforward statement, the explorer comments on the complex beauty of the Amazon and the need to protect it from people who do not understand its importance. While young people often take a simplistic view of the world and what it contains, the explorer has the wisdom to know this is foolish.

“If you pay ferocious attention to the world, you will be as safe as it is possible to be.”

The explorer’s advice on how to survive the Amazon applies not only to the wild but to anywhere the children may find themselves. To survive and thrive in a dangerous world, they must be aware of their surroundings and learn from their experiences.

“‘Swear,’ echoed Max. ‘It’s my city.’ He looked proudly down at his X. ‘Nobody gets to share it with us.’”

At age five, Max is wise enough to understand why the city must be kept a secret, and he makes the same vow as the older children. He demonstrates that he has grown and matured in a short period of time by joining the others in creating X tattoos to symbolize their vow of secrecy.

“Water leaping up into your face, the raft trying to ride the waves the way you would a horse, and me trying to make sure that the bamboo rod I used to steer didn’t jerk and impale me through the ribs. Some of the happiest days of my life.”

The explorer’s descriptions of his first time rafting down the Amazon and the thrill of being alive are both humorous and accurate. Although what he describes would sound like a horrible ordeal to some, the dangers and hardships he faces make him feel more alive.

“If ever there is a chance to play tag in the jungle in a tropical storm, it is a chance worth taking. Years later it would shine for Fred like a gold coin he carried with him.”

In the midst of starvation, injury, and a constant struggle to survive, the children enjoy a moment in which they can just be kids and have the simple pleasure of a game of tag. It remains a precious memory in Fred’s consciousness because it was a rare moment of unfiltered joy and silliness, demonstrating the close friendship between the children at the end of their journey.

“But it transpires that the heart has its own gas station, its own coal, its own soap. It will renew, so use it hugely.”

The explorer uses a metaphor to explain the resilience of the heart and its ability to embrace love even after severe loss. The explorer had given up on becoming attached or taking care of others, but meeting the children challenged him to open up his heart to love and friendship again.

“They were all four of them less neat now; their clothes were burnt, mud covered, fish flavored, torn. Their faces and hands were covered in mosquito bites, in scratches. They were slightly thinner, slightly rangier, slightly tougher.”

The children are changed after two weeks of surviving in the Amazon rainforest. The experience of surviving, working together, and meeting and learning from the explorer gives the children a new sense of strength, grit, and will to live.