Secrecy

One of the main defining features of the novel is the secrecy and obscurity surrounding the background and intentions of the protagonist. The novel explores dynamics of suspicion and trust as reactions to Smith’s intense need for secrecy. However, one of the main paradoxes that the novel explores in these dynamics is how Smith’s desire for privacy only seems to attract more attention to himself. During Smith’s first interaction with Gregory Lovell, which is in fact his first interaction with anyone on the island of Manhattan, Smith states, “There’s the lovely power of being a stranger…I may as well have been born again when I stepped ashore” (5). Unfortunately for Smith, a large part of the narrative demonstrates how Smith’s cavalier adherence to his own desire for privacy and secrecy merely attracts the suspicious scrutiny of the townspeople.

The scrutiny of...