The Shell Collector

The idea of fate is integral to “The Shell Collector,” and the shell collector’s relationship with this concept changes throughout the course of the story. As a child, when he encounters a mouse cowry for the first time, he asks in awe, “Who made this?” (13), marking an openness in the shell collector’s early life to the idea of a higher power, and this openness contributes to his appreciation for the wonders of nature.

His reaction to the arrival of the Jims reveals that he is still asking similar questions, though this time it is not about the existence of unique patterns in nature but about the course his life has taken. The arrival of the journalists prompts him to think back in time, attempting to uncover what event might have put the rest of his life—up to that point—into motion. “This all started when a malarial Seattle-born Buddhist named Nancy was stung by a cone shell in the shell collector’s kitchen,” the narration begins (11). However, in the next paragraph, the shell collector is less certain:

Or maybe it started before Nancy, maybe it grew outward from the shell collector himself, the way a snail’s shell grows, spiraling upward from the inside, whorling around its inhabitant, all the while being worn down by the weathers of