We have finally arrived at the scariest point (so far) in Swamplandia!. Ava is alone on the island. Chief still hasn't returned from his "business trip", Kiwi has remained on the mainland, and Ossie has now left reality for the underworld.
Soon after the explanation of Kiwi's whereabouts, we learn who Ossie ghost friend really is. "The dredgeman had a name, Louis Thanksgiving Auschenbliss" (100). He was a part of a dredge team ,working to drain the "useless" swamp. Before the job was finished, he died from a mysterious buzzard attack on-board. From then on, he's lived in the abandoned dredge boat in the swamp. This is where Ossie has been sneaking off to all along. Russell gives such vivid imagery of Louis's death that it makes me question the viability of the information. At first, Russell leads us to believe that Ossie's spirits are all a mental facade , but now Ava has begun seeing proof as well.
"Who besides us had even set foot in the dredge? Who alive would know how to run it? So I did believe, finally, in the ghost of Louis Thanksgiving. I believed, in a waterfall rush, in the world of ghosts. An underworld-" (149)
That quotation, said by Ava, is where the novel shifts from one of reality to one of fantasy. Now, we're dealing with a haunting, not a disconnected family.
Moments after Ossie's disappearance, we are introduced to Bird Man. Bird Man claims that he has been hired by the Chief to drive away the buzzards using primal tactics. People of his kind are considered "redneck exterminators, mangrove gypsies, backwoods ornithologists, black magicians, feathered druids, [and] scam artists" (132). Although, Ava doesn't see him this way. She says to herself that "Bird Man [is] not what [she] expected a Bird Man to be; for starters, he [is] very kind" (132).
I get the sense that Ava is opening herself up to Bird Man too quickly. He's a complete stranger that she found sitting in a tree, watcher her. Soon after saying hello to him she offers that he sleep in her house and then she tells him everything about her life; her mother's death, Kiwi's pursuit of college, Ossie's ghost-disappearance, and her father's lack of responsibility. She may be doing this to fill the lonely void she has from her family abandoning her.
Bird Man is the only person who agrees with Ava that ghosts are real and Ossie is truly in trouble. He agrees to take her to the underworld. I find this creepy on the Bird Man's part. He took supplies from the family and he's taking young Ava miles and miles into uninhabited swamp on boat. He claims this trip is going to last for many days and if she sees anyone, she must tell them that Bird Man is her cousin and they are on a fishing trip. WHAT?! This guy is creepy.
And this book keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Is it a good weird or a weird weird? I'm curious to see whether your reaction to Bird-Man is the accurate one or whether it is Ava's reaction that is the true sense of his character. Certainly we live in a world of skepticism, where we aren't supposed to trust strangers. Did Ava grow up with the same conditioning?
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a weird weird. The book went from a very realistic family, struggling with debt, to an underworld fantasy where mortal beings can join with the dead. It seemed very sudden to me.
DeleteAva grew up on Swamplandia!'s uninhabited island. I think the conditioning of not being able to interact with strangers has led her to trust more than she should. I've had yet to read once instance where she doubts an unfamiliar person. Ava's conditioning and the Bird Man's awkward interactions lead me to suspect this is more than just a boat ride through the swamp.