42 pages • 1 hour read

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1955

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-11

Chapters 12-14

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Seagulls

Seagulls carry a dualistic symbolism in the book. Predominantly, they represent hope. On a superficial level, they represent the hope of sighting land: “To a sailor, sea gulls are like sighting land” (51). Land itself is a further symbol of rescue, redemption, safety, the end of suffering. Therefore, the seagulls also carry these connotations. These are what the seagulls represent to Luis Velasco when he first spots them in Chapter 7, and then again in Chapter 9, just before he finally does see land on the horizon.

Conversely, the seagulls represent false hope and the mutability of nature; in Chapter 7, Velasco attempts to consume the small seagull that lands on his raft. When that goes awry, he remembers, “Every sailor knows that sea gulls sometimes get lost at sea and fly for several days without direction […]” (56). It is only in Chapter 9, when Velasco notices that the seagulls are older than the previous ones, that he believes that they are too old and wise to fly out far to sea and get lost. Seagulls represent hope—but only if the observer is keen enough to recognize what type of seagulls they are.

The Duality of Nature

Nature provides Velasco with sources for hope, but it also threatens his life every day he is at sea. During his first night, a lonely Velasco finds Ursa Minor in the sky, which triggers an emotional memory that buoys his spirits. Typically, dawn brings with it the end of night, the beginning and hope of a new day. For Velasco, the start of a new day wearies him (31); and yet, with the rising warmth and the beauty of the sea around him, Velasco states, “For the first time in my twenty years of life, I was perfectly happy” (31).

The sea itself is both a provider and destroyer. It provides Velasco with water—so long as he doesn’t drink too much of it, which would kill him. It provides him with a fish and a root to eat. However, on two occasions the rough waves toss Velasco from the raft, and through sheer luck and good fortune, he regains the raft before drowning.

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The sharks provide Velasco with a natural way to measure time. They feed so punctually that he always knows when it is five o’clock without having to look at his watch. However, the sharks are also a constant reminder of how close he is to death. He knows that if he were to fall in the water around the time they feed, they would attack him—not to mention that, in Chapter 8, a shark steals the only fish he would ever have.

Velasco’s Watch

Velasco’s watch symbolizes human civilization and technological advancement, and therewith, humankind’s mythical struggle to conquer nature. As one of the only pieces of human artifice he has with him, the watch takes on a magnified significance; almost immediately after falling overboard, Velasco begins staring at it. At first, he uses the watch to calculate when his rescue should arrive. However, after his rescue never materializes, he begins an obsessive observance of the watch and the time of day.

In Chapter 4, he even considers throwing his watch into the sea because his incessant observance fills him with constant anxiety about being (or not being) rescued—yet, he cannot bring himself to get rid of the watch. It may be nerve-wracking to stare at his watch, but losing his only tie to civilization fills him with terror. He immediately places it back on and continues to watch the time go by minute by minute.

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Even though natural signs of time become increasingly important for Velasco (e.g., the arrival of the shark, the sunset and sunrise), Velasco maintains an awareness of the time of day; for example, Velasco knows that the sharks always arrive at five o’clock in the evening. When they arrive, he knows exactly what time of day it is. The sharks do not replace five o’clock; they simply represent it.