Michael D. Miller
Mosquito Coast Blog
11 April 2014
Allie
Fox’s Fanaticism
Act 1: Allie Fox in the beginning of the film
travels to the local hardware store. On the ride to store, Allie Fox is riding in
the truck with his son, Charlie Fox, all the while he is describing to his son
how he feels about the decline of America. The commercialism and deceit of
American companies undermining American products, which in his mind is leading
the way to the decline of America, and selling foreign products to the American
people, putting Americans out of work. Allie Fox is negatively influencing his
son, Charlie, who holds his father in high regard, about the future of America.
Allie refuses to buy a Japanese Allie Fox dreams of a utopia in the jungle
living the simple life. He sees the migrant workers and states how they left
their country in hopes of coming to America for a better life; instead they
just traded themselves into another form of slavery leaving behind their
traditions and customs of their former land.
Act 2: Allie and his family are now living in the
town of Geronimo, which he bought from man at the bar. Allie uses the natives
to build his dream utopia in the jungle. To further his hopes of a society in
which he can live independent of the American Imperialism. In doing so, he
creates an American like society with a monopoly on the ice trade. Allie seeks
to spread his ice to all of the natives in the jungle in order to gain a
god-like status. He did this because he was feeling unappreciated among the
natives who had helped him and who had taken advantage of his invention. His
hopes of becoming a god-like figure among the more primitive native deep in the
jungle led to his discovery of what he believed were hostages being held by the
native. In fact they were wanderers seeking a better life to escape their
previous commitments to whatever organization they were once a member of. They track
down Allie’s jungle paradise and invade his home. Allie decides that the only
way to rid his family of the unwelcome guests is to lock them in “Big Boy” and
freezing them to death. Allie Fox is willing to kill three men to protect his
jungle paradise. He rationalizes his actions to Charlie that the men are no
better than a blood-sucking mosquito and that they had a number of chances to
leave, but refused.
Fox hopes to start a
new civilization amidst the poverty stricken, illiterate natives. Although his
goal is to ‘save” his family from the perceived declining social structure of
the United States, he is at least partially driven by an egotistical desire to
be regarded as the heroic “savior” of the simple people he hopes to live among.
Despite achieving some remarkable goals. Fox’s quest ends tragically when the
civilization he so despises encroaches on his jungle paradise. (Pfeiffer 156)
Act 3: Are we still going up river mother? Allie has
been shot by the Reverend Spellgood as he tries to escape Spellgood’s compound
after setting the church ablaze. Allie and his family make good their escape,
but Allie is in a bad way with a gunshot wound to the stomach. The Fox family
begins to head down river toward the ocean in the opposite direction that Allie
wanted to go, a metaphor for life’s choices.
Allie Fox throughout
the movies was always going against what his family wanted and the current of
nature; upstream, against the ocean current, and against the local customs by
essentially ignoring the natives lifestyle and customs.
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