more essay
Posted on: September 20, 2006, at 09:10:28pm

The father in Paul Theroux’s work, The Mosquito Coast, has much more different opinions about America than Albert Einstein did. The father’s outlook on America is all negative. The father mostly blames everything on America. For example when the father saw a fat girl he exclaimed that, “‘That’s cheeseburgers.’ And he stuck his head out the window and hollered, ‘That’s cheeseburgers!’ ”. (Theroux, 1) America is famous for cheeseburgers, and obese people, so he blames her obesity on cheeseburgers. The father is also outraged on the prices on everything in America, some of which he assumes should be free. For example the father thinks that ice should be free, because water is, and ice is a form of water. “They sell ice – ten pounds for a half a buck. But water is free as air. Those dingbats are selling water!” (Theroux, 2) Another problem the father has with America is that people from other countries make everything for America. What the father says shows how serious he is about all of his problems with America. “ ‘I just said so, Jack. It’s made in Japan. I don’t want my hard-earned bucks turned into foreign exchange for the sons of Nippon. I don’t want to bankroll another generation of kamikazes.”(Therou x, 2) The father is so annoyed about how America does not make their own goods that he will not buy something that says it has been made in China. The father dislikes the country so much that he says he wants to leave it. “‘Right,’ he said ‘But what kind of a country is it that turns shoppers into traitors and honest men into liars? No one ever thinks of leaving this country. Charlie, I think of it every day!’”(Theroux, 2) The father who said all of this about America has a really strong negative opinion about our country. Some of his comments were interesting, such as ice having a price.