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.
Symbols & Motifs
Big Red
Big Red is the nickname Sonny gives to the first sea turtle to return to Samaritan Bay after the Kali Creek disaster. Big Red’s escape from Domidion and pilgrimage to Samaritan Bay symbolizes the triumph of nature and life. Her journey is also an allegory for Gabriel’s arc, as they both break away from the confines of the corrupt company and find their way back to a community where they have roots.
Throughout The Back of the Turtle, Sonny and Crisp are the constant keepers of hope, certain that life will come back to Samaritan Bay. As a marker of progress, they both fixate on the return of the town’s once-thriving sea turtle population, believing this will herald the true rebirth of the community.
By the time Big Red appears, the return of Samaritan Bay’s community is indeed fully underway. As Gabriel sees her, he recognizes the red streak on her head and realizes she is the same turtle who once lived in a tank in Domidion’s lobby. Like Gabriel, she was displaced and cut off from a community of her peers. Her pilgrimage to the shores of Samaritan Bay seems impossible, as nothing in the narrative suggests that she ever lived there. Yet Gabriel, too, finds his way to Samaritan Bay without ever having stepped foot in the town before, guided only by his familial connection. Both displaced drifters somehow know the path to their true home.
The Anguis
The Anguis is a Domidion-owned barge. It’s no coincidence that the ship’s name sounds like anguish. Due to a mistake at Domidion after the Kali Creek incident, the Anguis was sent to sea carrying the residual GreenSweep. After being turned away from every port, the Anguis floats in a watery purgatory for months as its elusive shadow and the noise of its scraping metal parts haunt Samaritan Bay. The ship’s spectral presence symbolizes the constant threat of yet another human-made environmental disaster.
Dorian’s approach to the Anguis situation is to pretend that the ship has already sunk, despite clear evidence to the contrary. His actions mirror a common attitude toward climate change and environmental disasters, especially from large corporations: Ignoring anything that doesn’t affect his bottom line, Dorian brushes off all the destruction Domidion causes until bad press lowers the company’s stock. Even then, all he does is slap on a band-aid solution to merely improve Domidion’s image.
The fate of the Anguis proves that the consequences of human interventions in nature can’t be willed away through ignorance. The novel ends with the wrecked ship washing ashore at Samaritan Bay, its deadly cargo threatening the town’s tentative foundations of new life. Together, the community rallies and pushes it back into the water, staving off disaster for the time being. Still, the Anguis continues to float somewhere in the sea. Like the constant possibility of another human-made disaster, it looms, a reminder of the inevitable consequences of mistreating the Earth.
The Black-Haired People
The black-haired people who appear in the waters of Samaritan Bay represent different things to each character. Gabriel sees them as the First People, figures from the creation legend. His desire to see them as harbingers of a new beginning signals his desperation to be reborn and cleansed of his sins. To Sonny, the black-haired people are the ghosts of the Kali Creek victims, returning to their homes. His interpretation showcases his innocence and the impact the loss of the community has had on him. To Mara, they are squatters, reflecting her anger at the way the Smoke River tragedy has been exploited for personal gain and shock value while its victims have been abandoned.
The black-haired people are eventually revealed to be the Chins and the Huangs, two Taiwanese families who worked aboard the Anguis before it shipwrecked in a storm. They join the community of Samaritan Bay, integrating themselves both socially and economically as the town turns over a new leaf. Their presence is indeed a sign of a new beginning, one brought on not by returning ghosts or actualized mythology but by human connection and perseverance.
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By Thomas King
