The Beach

The Vietnam War is an ever-present motif in the novel. It exists as a fantasy in Richard’s head and sets the premise for the mood of the novel from the first page: “Vietnam, me love you long time. All day, all night, me love you long time” (1). Richard was born in 1974, during the war, and is influenced by the imagery and idea of jungle warfare. He shares this in common with Daffy, and through Richard’s delusions, they bond over their love of war, danger, and death. When Richard arrives at the camp, he is called an FNG, a war-term for new guys. He regularly influences war movies and TV shows that he watched as a child, such as The A-Team, M*A*S*H*, and others. In his dreams, Richard often dreams of things related to the Vietnam War, and these dreams slowly seep over to reality when he’s sent to the lookout with Jed. The Blurring of Dreams, Hallucinations, and Reality rapidly unfolds within Richard as he starts to see Daffy during his waking hours, toys with the drug guards, and does not seem to take anything seriously until his friends are killed. At one point, Richard jokes, “Ask not what your beach can do for you” (214), illustrating his patriotic views of his life there. In his anagnorisis, Richard realizes that Vietnam is no fantasy, and that it is much darker and more unpleasant than he believed. His friends are killed, he is beaten, and then he watches as the beach dwellers dissect his friends. Daffy notes, “In country, losing your shit comes with the territory!” (324), as if Richard should never have expected less. The beach is eventually destroyed, and when Daffy tells Richard he got what he wanted, Richard pleads, “But I didn’t want that Vietnam! I didn’t want that kind!” (378) (The Illusion of False Utopias). Vietnam was an unnecessary war that led to unnecessary deaths, and the deaths of the people on the beach were an unnecessary effort to protect something that was always meant to be destroyed.

Cannabis is a constantly present symbol in The Beach. It represents The Illusion of False Utopias that the people on the beach have and do whatever is necessary to maintain, as well as The Blurring of Dreams, Hallucination, and Reality that Richard and many of the others on the beach experience the longer they live there. When Richard first meets Daffy in the guest house in Bangkok, Daffy offers him a joint, throwing it at Richard without his consent. Richard hands it back without smoking it, but the stage is already set for Richard’s entrance into the unreal. Daffy’s offering of the joint symbolizes this, and Richard will never be the same from the time he meets Daffy. While in Koh Pha Ngan, Richard meets Sammy and Zeph, two men who are also traveling Thailand in search of something new. They smoke several joints together, solidifying a friendship between them and illustrating Sammy and Zeph’s equal eagerness to escape reality.

Whilst living on the beach, Richard and the other beach dwellers are constantly high on cannabis, surrendering themselves to a foggy and unreliable reality. Richard’s cannabis use also affects his reliability as a narrator, and he regularly admits that he does not remember everything he went through. Along with the secluded beach, a drug farm exists on the island. When Richard, Etienne, and Françoise first arrive on the island, they find the drug fields, and it is immediately clear that they are in for more than they bargained for. The danger is real, and when they realize the guards have guns, it occurs to them that they may never leave the island at all. This moment foreshadows several future events, including Richard’s encounters and observations of the guards, the kidnap and murder of Sammy and Zeph. In this way, the warmth and comfort drug initially offer the inhabitants of the beach proves a strange bedfellow and one that has lethal consequences.