The Mosquito Coast Analysis: Part 2 - Who is Allie Fox?

"A reasonable man adapts to the world.  Unreasonable one tries to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore, progress always depends on unreasonable ones."  - George Bernard Shaw

In Part One, I covered the broad theme of explorers driven to find new worlds and establish their visions of Utopia.  Every individual has their own ideas of Utopia so therefore this never works as is the case of Allie Fox in The Mosquito Coast.

Now let’s focus in on Allie Fox himself.  I bet anybody who has seen this movie came out of it with a strong opinion of him.  He has a strong personality.  He looks like an ordinary fellow, but we just can’t help noticing his self-confidence and belief in openly sharing his ideas to anybody within earshot.  I’ll admit right now that I think Allie Fox is a fascinating character.  Is he the way he is just because he wants to be different?  How much of what he says is truly what he believes and how much is just to get his way?

Who is Allie Fox? 

I’ll go over some of the same points as part 1, but only because they fit these points as well.

Allie thinks of himself as “The Last Man”, the one who will save civilization, the last one who knows how.

Allie’s son Charlie thinks of his father as a “genius”.  He listens to Allie rant on and soaks it all in.  Charlie is the eldest son and is clearly Allie’s favorite child.  Charlie is the apparent heir of Allie’s genius.

Jerry is Allie’s second son.  He’s always unsure of his father, his visions, and his intentions.  He’s not the believer Charlie is and is therefore mostly ignored by Allie.

I have to point out that this story is being told from the perspective of Charlie.  Charlie, being very much like his father is misogynistic.  We never learn his mother’s name.  She is just referred to as “Mother” – her sole role in the family and the movie.  The same goes for the twin daughters.  They are referred to as “April” and “Clover” in the closing credits, but I don’t believe that either one is called by name during the movie.  They hardly matter in Charlie’s narrative.  Charlie with his bias towards his father, is not an entirely credible narrator.

So what do “Mother” and the daughters think of Allie?  It doesn’t matter and they all seem very accepting of this.  “Mother” is happy when Allie is happy.

Most people outside the family who know Allie think he’s the town nut.

Reverend Spellgood seems to think Allie is a false prophet, or perhaps even the devil who poisons the ears of those who listen.

When Allie brought civilization in the form of farming, organized housing, and finally ice and air conditioning to a village in the Belize jungle, the indigenous people there thought he was a god.  Deep down inside, this is what Allie wanted all along.  For an all too short period, all was well with Allie when his vision appeared to come to reality and it was all due to him. 

Which basically makes Allie a megalomaniac.  He has a God complex.

Allie talks and talks and talks.  He hears only himself and this conditions him into believing he is a god.

Allie can create a person a.k.a. “Fatboy”.

“The Earth’s bellybutton”.  Allie’s position is that he can control even the Earth.  The Earth has human parts like “Fatboy”.

Even Mr. Polski’s employees call Allie “Father”.

"He’s my father too!”

The Bible doesn’t work.  Allie feels he can make this judgment.

Allie wants the wheel.  The need for control.

Allie gets his way.  He takes the wheel as if it’s his boat later on. 

Allie and Spellgood argue.  Allie lambasts his “lack of presumption”.  He also speaks as if he replaced God – “he didn’t, I did!”

The family being excited to go “home” means loss of control to Allie.  Notice how he regains his control.  He uses fear as a tool to control.  He tells his family America doesn’t exist anymore.

In order to perpetuate his own delusion that he is a god, Allie feeds his megalomania by turning negative situations positive with the tool of rationalization.

Mr. Polski rejects ‘Fatboy’.  Allie is disappointed at first, but then tells his boys that it’s a good thing.

Jeronimo is obviously not what Allie expected, but he tells his family it’s perfect.

Allie even rationalizes the destruction of Jeronimo.

“An Ordeal is a Square Deal”.  That’s an interesting quote.  Who said it? Theodore Roosevelt? Or is that Allie’s?

With yet another disaster happening and all seeming to be lost again, we get “I’ve got control!”  as Allie quickly regains his confidence with the found spark plugs and gasoline.  We know this is false because the plugs and gas came from Mr. Haddi and Charlie.  Allie did not have control.

“I’m doing this for all of us.  I’m doing this for you.”  More rationalization.

“Beautiful country, eh Mother.”  Allie goes back to thinking he can make everything right.

Allie’s most human moments are when the 3 mercenaries take over.  He even admits he made a mistake.

Spellgood and his own God-complex.

“And Pharoah said…”

Does Spellgood see the people of Jeronimo as “Israel” meaning slaves?  Allie notes the barbed wire around his property and calls it a “Christian Concentration Camp”.  Spellgood’s upset that “his people” forsook him for Allie. 

Spellgood’s beliefs are opposite of Allie’s.  Spellgood  sees life as a burden where one must accept one’s place in it and endure.  Spellgood is just the man to give comfort to the people that God will ease their burdens.  Allie believes that problems in life are there to be fixed.  Allie is the man up to the task.  Both men are megalomaniacs.

When Allie confronts Spellgood, whom he sees as a foe, the camera angle depicts him like a gunfighter fingering his hammer as if he’s about to be in a quickdraw.

I find the blue and yellow clothing interesting.  Notice how almost everybody wears blue and/or yellow except Allie and Charlie, who mostly wear tan and green.  They see themselves as separate from the others.  Even Spellgood and two men with them are in yellow or blue.  Mother wears white with a blue kerchief.  Looks like she’s a bit in between.

Just as Allie’s temple burned in a raging inferno, so did Spellgood’s. The burning tower resembles “Fatboy” burning.

Omens/Foreshadowing

Throughout the movie, there are little clues or omens that betray the thought that all is right with Allie and his visions.

Polski outright warns Charlie and Jerry that their father is dangerous.

Shadows creeping.  A broken down ancient temple.  I mentioned these in part 1.

Upside-down pyramid on “FatBoy” counters the idea that Allie and “Fatboy” are at the top of things.

Allie get angry when Jerry doesn’t show the awe everyone else does.

Allie’s watch is an “Omega” meaning the end.

Raft looks like a fish skeleton.  Raft of death.

Tyrant at the end.  You think of socialist “utopias” that quickly turned into tyrannies – USSR, China, Cuba. 

Allie realizes he’s just a man at the end.

It’s hard to think of it this way, but the world needs its Allie Foxes.  It needs people who do what everyone else think is crazy.  It’s those like Fox who wake people up and ultimately inspire others.  Progress doesn’t come institutionally from governments or corporations; it comes from risk-takers with self-serving motives.

Back to Blogging?

I'm going to attempt to get back to the personal discipline of writing something at least a couple of times a week.  Much of it really will be pure drivel as I'm doing this for me and not trying to impress or enlighten anybody.  So move along, please.  Nothing to see here.

The Meaning of Love

 

I'm suddenly reminded of an episode of Taxi where Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) explains what love is.  He's absolutely right!  This is the best explanation of love I have ever heard.

"They're still the Mets.  It's the same room. BUT YOU GOTTA HAVE ZINA THERE!"

For My Eyes Only: Confessions of an Aspie

I turned 60 a couple of weeks ago.  I can definitively say that age has never been an issue with me.  Whether I was in my 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and even 50’s, I never dwelled upon my age beyond just acknowledging to myself where I was in life.  All those birthdays came and went, and I have few memories of any of them.  I never even had a mid-life crisis.  People who know me know I’m down to Earth and logical, perhaps to a fault.

I’m having difficulty accepting that I’m 60.  I think I know why.

I’m writing this for myself.  I’m publishing this for personal reasons that I cannot disclose.  My legacy right now is primarily a few YouTube videos I’ve made.  I need to put something out there more personal and more personally meaningful.  I’m very healthy and strong.  I have no cancer, no heart issues, and all my body parts work.  I don’t plan on going anywhere for a long, long, time.  But when I do go, I know I won’t be remembered.

I swear that I’m not writing this to feel sorry for myself.

I’m autistic.  I’m not “Rain Man” but anybody who understands this and met me would realize I’m “somewhere on the spectrum” as they say.  Ten years ago or so, I would have been labeled as someone with Asperger’s Syndrome.  As I understand it, that term is being used less and less.  It’s not like I really keep up with this stuff, however.

What is it like having Asperger’s?  I’ve read and heard some explanations that never really satisfied me.  So I’ll give you mine.  As someone with Asperger’s, life occurs on the other side of a screen and I’m primarily an observer.   I only partially understand what’s going on the other side of the screen because my brain has problems processing information from my senses.  I see people interacting and it’s all a big mystery.  Blending in with and being part of a group of people is a natural thing for most human beings.  For me, it’s next to impossible because I can’t process new information on the fly.  I have to analyze everything before I can understand it.  Therefore, if I’m exposed, I’ll do everything to go back in front of the screen.  In other words, I tend to not play well with others and come across as shy and awkward.  People I knew or know may remember me for saying inappropriate things at inappropriate times.  There is an ever-growing list of people who used to be in my life whom I have alienated and will have nothing to do with me.  If I had any empathy, I’d actually care.

Ah empathy!  It’s often explained that people with Asperger’s lack it.  For the most part, that’s fairly accurate.  Viewing a sick child or injured animal will make most people sad, even if it’s not their child or pet.  That really doesn’t happen with me.  However, over the years, I’ve learned to “fake” it because I know I’m supposed to feel this way and will be scorned if I don’t.  Deep down, I really am a cold-hearted bastard!  Or am I?

If I lack empathy, why do I still mourn for a dog I lost 24 years ago?  Why does the memory of the vet inserting that injection into him haunt me to this day?  Why do I lie at night wondering where my brother is as he is one of the forementioned people whom I’ve alienated and is no longer in my life?

I’m getting better all the time, but Asperger’s will show its ugly head now and then, even at age 60.

I try not to and don’t often think of my childhood, but I’ll make an exception today.  I didn’t know why I was not like the other kids.  I had very few friends if any.  Most kids just saw me as that weird kid who kept to himself and was kind of dumb and klutzy.  There were few who could match me at math or could spell as well as me.  Yet I didn’t get good grades.  I never wanted to learn what the teacher was teaching.  My parents didn’t know what to do with me.  All they knew was that I “wasn’t applying myself”.  I got repeatedly berated and punished.  They made me feel worthless.

It got worse as a teenager.  I never partied.  I never dated.  I couldn’t even talk to girls.  I went through high school angry and scared because I was repeatedly reminded that my future relied on my schoolwork.  I was screaming on the inside, but no one heard me because there was nothing to hear.  

Going into my 20’s found me convinced I had no future and I was a worthless human being.  Those days in the early ‘80’s found me providing food services at Magic Mountain.  Rumor has it I went to college, but that was such a waste of time that I barely remember it and mostly refuse to acknowledge that I ever went.  I didn’t learn a thing except that I’m stupid.

It was a rocky path, but spending more and more time away from my parents was the first step.  At Magic Mountain, I started to figure out I had my own identity.  This may seem strange, but to me it was a revelation.  Believe it or not, I found out I had a sense of humor.  I learned how to say things to make people laugh – I never had that before!  I think I even got some people to genuinely like me.

At age 26, I left home.  That’s late for most, but scary for me.  I still didn’t have my act together, but I moved in with someone who gave a gentle push and helped me tremendously.  It’s too bad that became a relationship that would sour.  I still had a ways to go.

Entering my 30’s found me angry and frustrated.  I had become a bad person.  I was convinced I had no future and was rude and snarky to a lot of people.  I had become very unreliable.  No one could count on me as I only thought of myself.  Others my age were married and had children.  I wanted that too but was clueless of how to get there.  I was jealous.  My career at the time was computer retail sales and I absolutely hated it.  I was such a loser!

In a dead end career, in a dead end situation, in a dead end life, I suddenly decided to fix my life.  I can’t really explain what the moment was or if it was a moment, a day, or even a year.  With literally no valuable skills, I developed some.  I mentioned earlier that I was a poor student.  I always hated classrooms and still do.  For years, I had dabbled in how to use computers for video and animation.  It helped me in selling this stuff.  Why not fully dive into it?  I’m a good student when I’m teaching myself and that I did.  I taught myself so well that in a very short time, my skills were marketable.  So marketable in fact, a college hired me to be a part-time instructor.  I ended up teaching video editing and 3D animation in Hollywood for 2.5 years!  I still can’t get over what an amazing break that was.  The school found out one day that I lacked a college education that they had assumed I had and they dismissed me. 

It hardly mattered.  In my early 30’s, I found myself.  Nothing was going to stop me now!  All the self-doubt and low self-esteem I had all my life were replaced by genuine drive and ambition.  Within just a few years, I made myself as a respected person in the legal industry and even got married.  Incidentally, this was also the time I found out I was autistic.  I never knew or even suspected.  I always had just assumed something was just plain wrong with me.

It took me 30+ years to learn what Robert Wilson was capable of.  For me, life truly began at age 30.  The Asperger’s never left, but it’s no longer a mystery or an obstacle, it’s who I am. 

I lost my wife to a series of strokes starting 6 years ago.  She’s alive, but she’s so physically and mentally impaired that she is no longer the person I had married.  She’s now an obligation (I have to feed, wash, and dress her).  I am essentially a widower.  So I’m 60 with parents who’ve both passed away years ago, a brother whom I haven’t spoken to for years, very few friends, and there is a person who used to be my wife living in my house.  Yet, I never felt lonely these past years.  That has changed.  “Aspie’s” are used to being alone.  Even among friends, we are always alone to a certain extent.  Loneliness is a fairly new experience for me.  Why am I suddenly lonely?

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