Good Versus Evil

One of the most dominate themes of the novel is good versus evil. Evil is manifest in the greed for the wealth of the treasure. This is what motivates many of the treasure hunters, especially Neidelman and Streeter. They are so blinded by greed that they become irrational by the end of the novel and ignore the dangers of the radiation and the booby-trapped treasure vault. Neidelman and Streeter are both willing to kill for the treasure and are called insane by Hatch and others. Streeter and Neidelman become so twisted by greed that they believe that Hatch and the others have conspired to sabotage the Ragged Island project to cut them out of their share of the treasure. Their greed eventually leads to their deaths.

Good is basically represented by Hatch and Clay. Hatch isn't interested in the money and states several times that he...