logo

47 pages 1 hour read

Paul Theroux

The Mosquito Coast

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1981

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Character Analysis

Charlie Fox

At 13 years old, Charlie Fox is the product of his unique upbringing; he longs for broader experiences outside his socially isolated home life. As a narrator, Charlie is observant and reflective, demonstrating empathy and insight unexhibited by most of his family members. He is humble and self-conscious, acutely aware of his difference from peers. He has grown up under his father’s oppressive and totalitarian leadership, and his brevity in speech compared to the wealth of thoughts and feelings shared in his narrative indicate that Allie’s need to dominate conversations has silenced his son. Privately, Charlie has begun to develop his own opinions and perspectives and to question his father, developments which steadily persist and bloom into a greater sense of autonomy as the novel progresses.

Charlie feels apart from his siblings, referring to them as “the kids.” He spends the most time with their father, cast in the role of his most anchored captive audience. He shoulders the burden of his father’s eccentricity, demonstrated by the sense of responsibility he describes. As the novel progresses, Charlie grapples with the many ways in which his father consistently disappoints him and is compelled to muster his courage and act against his father to ensure the survival of his family.

Allie Fox

Allie Fox is possessed of a significant measure of brilliance in the realm of invention and design, but he is also paranoid, cynical, critical, and condescending. Allie bloviates incessantly on the myriad faults he finds with the world around him. He uses bigoted, insensitive language to disparage and discredit anyone who doesn’t agree with him or who behaves contrary to his expectations. Narcissistic, his grandiose delusions seize control over him as the novel progresses. Allie vacillates between praising and devaluing others subject based on whether they happen to be fulfilling his expectations at the time. With his family, he is exploitative and abusive.

Charlie relates Allie’s history of hospitalization for mental illness, so the reader knows that Allie has been impaired to the point that his functioning has been interrupted in the past. Allie has no reservations about putting others in danger to achieve his end. In casting himself as the hero in his own story, all other roles are supporting. He evinces a white colonial attitude. Although he praises the remoteness and wildness of Jeronimo, he dislikes the natural world and utilizes his skills to ensure his creature comforts and conveniences. Allie shows little character development over the course of the novel, aside from the deterioration of his mental status.

Mother

Mother is the only member of the family whose first name is never provided. Addressed only as “Mother,” she complies with Allie’s demands, accepts the rules he sets, and is content to remain uninformed on major decisions effecting the family. Although she is willing to criticize Allie, speaking her mind directly when she does not approve of his conduct, she never verbalizes this criticism in the presence of strangers. Through the eyes of her son, Charlie, she is seen as more of a peer than an authority figure because her compliance is the same as her children’s. Her initial cooperation with Allie’s plan to bring the family to Jeronimo is a testament to her optimism and the faith and trust she places in his abilities. While her love for her children is demonstrated through consistent tenderness and nurturing, her refusal to disobey Allie at various points in the novel suggests that her loyalty lies with her husband first and her children second. She exhibits this paralyzing dependency until Allie’s death.

Jerry Fox

The middle child among the four Fox children, Jerry’s development over the course of the novel is the most profound. Conditioned by Allie to be competitive with Charlie, he embraces every opportunity to criticize his older brother but is rarely called upon to prove his own mettle. Jerry exhibits a fair amount of immaturity and is prone to griping and whining when he is tired or inconvenienced. However, Jerry is also the first to express his outward disillusionment with Allie’s leadership after the destruction of Jeronimo. Bullied by his father, his high opinion of Allie declines rapidly, and he begins to openly criticize him. Less physically and emotionally resilient than Charlie, he nevertheless summons the requisite bravery required to persuade his brother that the survival of the rest of the family may need to be preserved at the expense of their father’s.

April and Clover Fox

Five-year-old twin girls April and Clover Fox are foils to Charlie and Jerry. Their worship of their father is unwavering throughout the novel while their brothers’ perspectives are dramatically altered. They are eager to please Allie, soaking up his praise as rewards for echoing him. They serve as an example of the extent of Allie’s influence on the family, as they not only accept and enthusiastically repeat their father’s doctrine but have assumed aspects of his personality as well. Clover is bossy and assertive and commands attention from adults and children alike at Jeronimo despite her young age.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text