Betrayal

Among its other themes, The Mound Builders is an examination of betrayal. All of the adult characters gathered in the house in Blue Shoals are bright and capable people; what keeps them from reaching their goals is a pattern of betrayal—real and merely perceived, large and small—visited on the characters by each other.

Chad, for example, destroys the dig site and probably kills Dan and himself. From his point of view, however, Chad is more victim than criminal. He reveals that he values two things above all others: Jean ("the only thing I ever saw I really wanted") and his future riches. Both have been taken from him by the actions of others. The summer before, when he was involved with Jean, he "didn't really figure" that she would marry Dan. In his mind, Jean has betrayed him by marrying Dan and is "trying...