The Mosquito Coast | Themes & Symbolism

The Mosquito Coast Significant Topics

Family

Mosquito Coast, at its heart, is a study of the personality of Allie Fox. Fox shows symptoms of mania, an extended period of increasing impulsivity, talkativeness, poor judgment, insomnia and inappropriate enthusiasm. This mania is exacerbated by the Fox family structure, most obviously the unqualified and occasionally pathological support of Mother.

Initially, Fox seems a harmless codger who reasonably rejects much of what is wrong with American culture, including obesity, crass materialism, wastefulness, economic exploitation, the trade imbalance and poor education. Soon, however, Fox's views become more extreme and are the justifications for him moving the family to an unknown tropical destination. Arriving in Honduras, Fox charms the local residents into slaving unselfishly to build Jeronimo. When that settlement fails due to Fox's foolish pride, egotism and rampant thirst for technology, Fox has no one to bully and badger except the members of his own family.

Initially, Charlie is thirteen...
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