The Perfect Storm | Themes & Symbolism

The Perfect Storm Significant Topics

Factual Reality vs. Human Reality

Junger's book has a strong narrative quality, but the story of the Andrea Gail is only a small part of the book. Most passages in the book are factual and about either science or history.

Junger gives a long detailed history of the fishing industry in New England. He goes as far as to trace obscure governmental regulations and their effect on fishermen. He is interested in the history of Sable Island. In one part of the book the author recounts how convicts were left there; in another section, he gives details about ship-wrecks and deaths of sailors on that island. Yet Sable Island is only a small part of the story of the Andrea Gail.

There is a lot of science in The Perfect Storm. Junger gives long explanations about the mechanics of wave energy, calculations about how large a wave must be to take down a certain size...
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