31 pages • 1 hour read
Tod OlsonLost in the Pacific 1942
Nonfiction | Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Sharks
At first, the crewmembers are alarmed by the sight of sharks circling their rafts. While they have many areas of expertise between them and can cope with many dangers, the crew is mostly reduced to lying low and hoping for the best when they encounter these sharks. The sharks are mysterious and viscerally frightening in a way that many of the other dangers the crew faces, like dehydration, are not. These fierce predators instantly make the crewmembers anxious: “The men pulled their limbs in tight and kept a wary eye on the waters around them. The predators seemed willing to keep their distance—for now” (45).
The men never really learn how to cope with the sharks, although they eventually manage to kill one. Instead, the danger and unpredictability of the sharks recedes into the background as one of the many unknowns surrounding the men at sea. The greatest uncertainty the crew grapples with is whether or not they will survive and be rescued. The sharks’ subtle and circuitous movements through the water symbolize this uncertainty, which surrounds the men throughout their ordeal. Ultimately, the sharks represent a threat that the combat-oriented crew cannot fight with their hands.
Navigational Tools
Though two of the plane’s navigational tools—its antennae and octant—ultimately cause the plane to crash, the crewmembers continue to rely on maps for navigation while they are lost at sea. Even after the maps are lost or ruined by a storm, the men never shake the habit of trying to figure out exactly where they are drifting. The maps act as coping mechanisms for the men, who cannot admit that they are relying mostly on intuition and superstition for guidance in a desperate situation.
The value of navigational tools for the stranded crew members is more psychological than practical. They allow the men to maintain an important fiction—that the men are in control of their situation. The belief that their efforts can affect their dire situation inspires the men to keep struggling for survival. It also helps them to focus on one obstacle at a time, rather than becoming overwhelmed by all of the dangers and uncertainties they face. Finally, this belief helps the men cling to their civilized identities as military men even in a wild and desolate place.
Cartridges
While the men are stranded at sea, they use leftover pistol cartridges for drinking and urinating. At one point, they even try in desperation to drink their own urine, but “[t]hey gave up after a couple of sips” (90). The cartridges, even more than the men’s rafts, symbolize how uncomfortably close the crew is and how this proximity can be both sustaining and destabilizing. On one hand, the men are able to use the cartridges to fend off dehydration and keep their rafts minimally clean. On the other hand, the cartridges’ secondary use as waste receptacles is not only potentially dangerous but also threatens to break down the orderliness and military protocol that the crew has tried so hard to maintain: “Bartek [...] freed himself from the constraints of military rank for a while. After all, Colonel Rickenbacker drank from the very same cartridge that Private Bartek peed in” (102).
