#11- Letters from the Samantha- Mark Helprin
This is the second offering from Helprin’s Ellis
Island. It’s a series of letters from
Samson Low, a ship captain aboard a doomed cargo vessel in the Indian
Ocean. The diary chronicles a two weeks
period after the Captain rescues a typhoon-stranded Madagascar Ape.
The internal struggle aboard the ship and within the Captain’s
head is whether to keep the ape safe and possibly endanger the crew’s well
being or throw him back and let nature run its course.
Even though the captain tells his crew “He [the ape] is not
a symbol,” for the readers, it is clearly a metaphor for the Captain’s weakness
or leniency. He is normally a hard-edged stickler for rules and order. As he continues to let compassion make his
decisions, and let the Ape live, discipline gets more lax aboard the ship. There is a series of events where the fate of
the ape changes and with each event, the crew gets more divided. As long as the Captain’s “weakness” (the proverbial
800 pound gorilla in the room) the ship runs closer to chaos…at least in the
mind of the Captain.
Notable Passage: “Though the wind was slight and we made
poor time, we were elated by perfect climate and painter’s colors…”
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