53 pages • 1 hour read
Thomas KingThe Back of the Turtle
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 90-99Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 90-99 Summary
On the beach, Sonny refreshes his flickering beacon fire with pieces of driftwood. Crisp appears, toting a picnic of Sonny’s favorite foods. As they sit down together to eat, Sonny spots Gabriel and Mara on the Apostles.
Dorian eats breakfast alone at the Hermes, ignoring his phone’s constant ringing. He recites lines from Invictus: “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul” (484). He calls an impromptu meeting with a real estate mogul and arranges to buy one of the Hermes-owned properties, planning to name it “The Asher.”
After their picnic, Crisp brings Sonny further up the beach and advises him to lie low in the sand. Big Red is laying a clutch of eggs. Sonny knows that soon the eggs will hatch, “as it was in the beginning” (488). In the distance, he sees the figures of Gabriel and Mara straggling up the beach. They have weathered the waves at the Apostles, and he cheers for them as they make their way over to the tower.
Trailing behind Mara, Gabriel spots Big Red on the sand. He recognizes her distinct red marking—she is the same turtle who lived in the tank at Domidion. Nonplussed, he watches her plunge back into the water.
Gabriel, Mara, and Crisp settle down to eat together as Sonny and Soldier play in the water along with a few of the Huangs. Crisp tells them that the Chins will begin working at the Ocean Star Motel, and the Huangs will use their considerable gardening skills to grow fresh produce for the town. Mara cries for the reserve, but Crisp comforts her, saying that its residents will “all sail home” in time (496).
From the fog bank over the ocean comes the loud screeching noise. A huge broken-down ship pushes through the fog and moors on the beach; it’s the Anguis. Crisp, Gabriel, Mara, and the Chins and Huangs join forces to push against the ship, and Gabriel sings, the same song he sang the day he saved the two families in the water. They push and push until the ship unsticks from the sand and is carried away by the tide.
Slowly, people depart the beach until Mara and Gabriel are the only ones left. A group of pelicans flies overhead.
Dorian returns to Domidion feeling surprisingly well. All of his symptoms have abated. Winter appears with good news: Someone has tried to kill the prime minister, and the assassination attempt has pushed news of the Athabasca River incident, and all of Domidion’s other controversies, out of the news cycle. She reports another sighting of the Anguis, but Dorian states that “it’s at the bottom of the ocean […] I can feel it in my bones” (507). He decides to buy a new turtle for the lobby tank.
Months after the Athabasca disaster, the controversy has died down significantly. Domidion’s stock prices have gone back up, and Olivia has moved to Vancouver. Dorian is enjoying life in his new property at the Hermes, and though the results of his angiogram were inconclusive, his concerns about his health are on the back burner.
At Domidion, Dorian calls off the fruitless search for Gabriel. Winter arrives with more news about the Anguis: It’s been spotted by a cruise ship on a projected course back to Toronto. Exasperated, Dorian suggests they sink the ship, and Winter smiles.
In Samaritan Bay, life is slowly returning to the ocean. First fish, then otters and birds, and finally the hatching of Big Red’s baby sea turtles. Crisp has moved Gabriel’s trailer near Mara’s house, hoping that the two of them will be able to repair their bond and perhaps even kindle a relationship.
Back at the beach, Sonny is ecstatic at the emergence of the baby turtles. Crisp watches him playing the elk skin drum to encourage them into the water. With Soldier by his side, he proclaims, “I am well” (518).
Chapters 90-99 Analysis
Months out from the dam breaks, news of the Athabasca River disaster has been subsumed by the rapid news cycle, becoming just another name on the long list of human-made disasters. Domidion shares recover, and public attention shifts to the latest novel happenings in the world. There is no comeuppance for Dorian. Although he’s presumably still terminally ill, he enjoys a resurgence of energy and continues on in the same manner he always has, absolutely assured of his own power.
King injects a note of dark humor by having Dorian solve his existential anxiety around being remembered by naming a building after himself. In his final scene, he hints at a plan to sink the Anguis, which would inevitably cause another devastating ecological tragedy. The pattern of destruction seems poised to repeat itself once more. King slips in a direct nod to the cyclical nature of the story in Dorian’s plan to buy another turtle to replace Big Red.
The way the Athabasca River incident plays out mirrors the way such events are received in the real world, with a quick burst of shock that is impossible to sustain. Each new tragedy dominates the news cycle for a few days, perhaps a week, and then fades away. The untouchably powerful forces behind the destruction remain shielded from consequences, and only those personally affected are left to pick up the pieces of their lives.
In Samaritan Bay, Gabriel, Mara, and the others do just that. With the Chins and the Huangs integrated into the town, the seeds of a communal rebirth are sown. Saving Mara has finally freed Gabriel from his death wish. Even though he cannot forgive himself for GreenSweep, he can live with his guilt. Caring for Mara and the others has given him a new purpose, and he no longer feels like the evil left-handed twin. Together, they begin building a new world where the old one ended, bringing the allegory of the creation myth to a close.
In this section of the novel, the practice of gathering for meals emerges as an important mode of social connection. Mara, Crisp, and Gabriel share a Taiwanese meal with the Chins and the Huangs, symbolizing a cultural exchange and full acceptance of the new families into their community. Later, Crisp brings Sonny a picnic of his favorite foods, a clear act of care. Meanwhile, Dorian eats yet another high-end meal alone. No one shares in his pleasure.
There is a late climactic moment in the novel when Sonny’s lighthouse guides the ghostly Anguis to shore. In a final dramatic show of his superhuman nature, Crisp leads the effort to push the Anguis back into the sea. It’s a symbolic moment as the newly formed community joins forces to stave off another disaster.
The Back of the Turtle wraps on a hopeful note. The rebirth Crisp predicted has come to pass. Life, love, and nature in all its forms are returning to Samaritan Bay. Though the time bomb of the Anguis still floats somewhere beyond the horizon, the resilience of nature and the human spirit has triumphed, at least temporarily.
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