Some Dramatic Decisions

TIMELINE (up to page 75)

• Hilola dies of ovarian cancer. Ava is twelve. Swamplandia! begins losing business.
• Chief takes Grandpa Sawtooth to a retirement home on the mainland. He has Alzheimer's disease.
• The Bigtrees learn that the World of Darkness has opened and is talking away tourists.
• Ossie finds The Spiritist's Telegraph, a book about witchcraft. She becomes obsessed.
• Ossie has a birthday party. She is disappointed in the Chiefs obsession over Swamplandia!.
• Chief comes up with "Our Evolution: Carnival Darwinism," his plan to save the park.
• Family visits Grandpa Sawtooth. This is the last time the family is truly together. It's the turning point for them.
• Kiwi runs away to the mainland to find a job. He wants to help get the Chief out of debt.
• Chief leaves to do "business". He claims he'll return in three weeks. Only Ava and Ossie live on the island now.
• Kiwi gets a job at the World of Darkness, ironically. He has trouble adapting to the social life.
• Three days later, the last customer arrives. Swamplandia! is a ghost park.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (up to page 75)

• Osceola
• Ossie begins as a fun-loving sister who spends every moment bonding with her siblings, especially Ava. That changes after she begins reading The Spiritist's Telegraph. She begins going out at strange hours of the night and disappearing for long amounts of time. Ossie tries to teach Ava how to use a Ouija board to speak to their mother, but is unsuccessful. Eventually, Ossie starts a relationship with a ghost she met through witchcraft. Ava hears Ossie moaning in the night as if she's even sexually involved with this ghost. Keep in mind, this isn't magical realism.  This is just a sixteen year old girl going mad. Considering she's been living on an uninhabited island for the entirety of her life, her insanity is to be expected. She hungers for human relationships and the only way she can satisfy it is in her own mind. Everyone in the family sees her sickness. Kiwi says to Ava, "'Ossie found a way to get out of here without leaving her bedroom... it's pretty genius, actually.'" (54)
• Chief
• The Chief has been a complete mess for the entire novel. Hilola dies and his whole life goes down the drain. While the world around him is crashing and burning, he remains in a state of denial. Each character has a sickness about them and denial is the Chief's. He owes many hundreds of thousands of dollars, but allows the bills to pile up on the table as if they don't even exist. He tells his children that "[Death is] as ordinary as a rain delay" (9). Often times he even raises his voice when challenged. Once again, Kiwi explains the reality of the situation: "He thinks he's being optimistic or something but it's sick, what he's doing. We won't even have enough money to move" (55).
• Kiwi
• The end of this section focuses completely on Kiwi's development. He appears to be the savior of the family. He's the only one who sees the truth of the situation. Throughout childhood, he was always reading books. Using his book smarts, he plans to go to the mainland and become a college scholar. The Chief doesn't approve of this due to the fact that he believes Kiwi is needed for work at Swamplandia!. This not true at all, considering the park sees no business. Going against his Father's wishes, Kiwi steals three-hundred dollars and flees from the island to find a job. When he begins work at the World of Darkness, it's evident that eighteen years of life on an uninhabited island has created a socially inadequate individual. He cannot make friends, he fails at seducing girls, and he's losing more money than he's making. Unfortunately, it looks as though Kiwi won't save his father from debt anytime soon. Many times, Kiwi lets the stress of the working class get to him. "His eyes watered in the bathroom mirror. The whole theme park was like a joke that someone had taken too far!" (70) Kiwi has changed from a smart, confident individual, to a scared and confused one.
• Ava
• Ava is sick in the sense that she is too naïve. She's the youngest of the family and she's used to believing whatever she's told. Anyone can change her mind. First she believes Ossie truly can communicate with spirits, then Kiwi changes her mind. Then, she is completely dedicated to Swamplandia! and Kiwi convinces her that it's smart to leave. She's all over the place. The most important element of this character is her love for Hilola. Ava constantly mentions her in some way. Personally, I get the sense that Ava is vulnerable. She doesn't seem to have any independence. This worries me for the future of the book. Every family member has appeared to find a way out of the mess. Chief denies it and then leaves on a trip, Ossie talks with the dead, and Kiwi leaves for the mainland. Ava is left alone to fend for herself and decide what to do with a theme park of alligators.