- Chief Bigtree [Father]
- Hilola Bigtree [Mother]
- Kiwi Bigtree [Oldest, son]
- Osceola (Ossie) Bigtree [Middle, daughter]
- Ava Bigtree [Youngest, daughter] NARRATOR
For years, Chief Bigtree and Hilola Bigtree own an alligator theme park called Swamplandia! on an island off the coast of Florida. They live there full time with their three kids: Kiwi, Ossie, and Ava. Hilola is the main attraction. She jumps off a high diving board into over 300,000 gallons of alligator-infested water and then swims her way across the pool and onto the stage. Ava watches each time with inspirational awe and always shouts "You won!" (5) when Hilola returns safely. This doesn't last long.
I expected Hilola to die from alligator-munchies, but instead "...[she] got sick, sicker than a person should ever be allowed to get" (7). Hilola dies at age 36 of ovarian cancer. This is not only unfortunate for the family who misses their mother very much, but also the business. "[Customers] didn't take a forty-minute ferry ride to eat corn dogs with some big lizards and some extremely sorry-looking children" (9). In addition to losing their greatest attraction, The Bigtrees also lose their spot as the #1 theme park. A new theme park called the World of Darkness appears right on time to assist in Swamplandia!'s downfall. It also has a very fitting name for the "face of [their] enemy" (10).
As time goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that the Bigtree family is slowly falling apart. Chief begins drinking things like "Gulch brandy and cola" (11) when the "morning ferry [fails] to show" (11). Swamplandia! loses all its family business to drunks who vandalize the park. I believe that Chief is in a horrible stage of denial. "...he seemed angry with us...'Those fools are just paying our rent until we get the families back. This is like bad weather, you understand? It's gonna blow over'" (17). Chief says this to his two daughters, scaring them away due to his sudden anger.
From these first 20 pages of Swamplandia!, I get the impression that each member of the family is slowly losing a sense if who they are, as if they are going insane, even Ossie: "Free time. Many blank, untouristed hours of it. That's how my sister's metamorphosis started to happen, I think -inside that white cocoon" (19). I believe this is from a combination of loss of financial security and lack of socialization. The family lives full time on their mainly uninhabited island and now never sees any business at their theme park. It seems they all have an empty void. Chief has demonstrated fits of anger and denial, and there is foreshadowing that Ossie is soon to change as well.
