The Mosquito Coast 3 4

Penguin Readers Factsheets l e v e l E

T e a c h e r’s n o t e s 1

by Paul Theroux 5

S U M M A R Y INTERMEDIATE

he Mosquito Coast begins in contemporary Theroux says that his stories complete him as a person. T suburban America. Allie Fox is brilliantly clever He lives in every sentence he writes. He does not enjoy with his hands and his head is full of ideas. But he literary fame – he prefers to be anonymous. He likes to be hates the modern world. His children have no television or in remote places with people who have no need of books toys, they wear old clothes and they don't go to school. and do not know what he does. He writes in secret and He hates his boss, Mr Polski, who Allie thinks is only delivers his finished novels in brown paper parcels. He interested in making money and doesn't care about the says he is the shadow and his fiction is the reality. future. One day Allie decides to get out. He puts his wife and BACKGROUND AND THEMES children in his van and drives them away from their old life. They travel by ship to Honduras. At La Ceiba, on the Paul Theroux is a traveller. The nature of travelling means Honduran coast, his bewildered family watch as he buys that you move on. Moving on, leaving things behind and a place called Jeronimo, a small town on a river in the looking for new experiences is an important theme in The jungle. Mosquito Coast. Allie Fox doesn't like what he sees in America. His solution is not to stay and try to change it, When they get to Jeronimo they find nothing more than but to walk away. When things don't work out at various a broken-down house in a clearing. Mother and the places in Honduras, he makes the family move on and children are horrified, but Allie is delighted with it. Here he start again. can be king. He controls his family and the Indians who work for them. Together they create a new life from The Mosquito Coast is a character study of a man who nothing. However, there are elements he cannot control develops a paranoid obsession – of a man who thinks the and soon things start to go wrong. whole world is against him and only he can save the world. He lives his life in a state of high tension, never A B O U T PAUL THEROUX resting in his attacks on America and western civilization. He fights against the current of modern life. He thinks he Paul Theroux grew up in a large, middle-class family near is the last real man in the world. Boston in the United States. After university, in 1963, he In Allie's attempts to create a new world in the jungle, he began a life of travelling. He taught in Italy, as a Peace tries to control everyone and everything around him. He Corps teacher at a school in Malawi, as a university makes everyone see things his way. When he feels lecturer in Uganda and then for three years in Singapore. threatened, he reacts aggressively and violently. All this time, he was also writing and publishing short The novel also examines the relationship between father stories, articles and novels. In the early 1970s Theroux and son. Theroux elicits warm feelings towards Allie by and his family settled in Britain, where they stayed for 17 telling the story through the eyes of his loyal and believing years. Theroux continued to travel widely around the son, Charlie Fox. We feel sorry for Allie when Jeronimo is world from his base in Britain. During this time he wrote destroyed, but we feel more sorry for Charlie as he comes many of his famous and very successful travel books. to understand his father's failings and to lose his belief in Finally he returned to America where he now lives. him. Although he grew up in a large family, Theroux says that Theroux sets up an interesting paradox as the basis of he had a lonely childhood, which gave him plenty of time the novel. All the time that Allie is searching for a simple to dream and invent. Large families produce writers, he paradise, he is planning how to change it and tame it. In thinks, because everyone is trying to get attention and fact it is the children who learn better to live with nature – writing is a way of doing that. His family thought he was eating wild plants, protecting themselves against insects deaf because he never answered questions – he wasn't with leaf juices, building a simple shelter from materials in deaf, he just wasn't listening. In writing he found the the jungle. Allie, meanwhile, plants western crops in answer to what life was about.

© Pearson Education 2000 l e v e l Penguin Readers Factsheets 4 T e a c h e r’s n o t e s neat rows, puts up elaborate mosquito nets and builds an saying to Gurney Spellgood, 'I'm much easier to ice-making machine. remember than you are'; p.9 making himself captain of Mr Haddy's boat. The jungle has lived for centuries without ice. Allie Ask students what other things about his character they brings ice from the modern world he has rejected. He have noticed. claims that ice has many uses, for example to keep food fresh and to treat sunburn, and will make the Indians' lives Chapters 6–10 better. But what comes after ice? Televisions and vacuum Put students into small groups. Get students to think cleaners? The machine also symbolizes his need for about the family's new life from Mother's point of view. Then they work out a conversation between Mother and approval. He wants to work miracles, to show that he is a the children about: (a) their new life, (b) their old life, (c) little like God. When he reaches Seville and finds that the their plans for the day, (d) Father, (e) students' own ideas. missionaries have already introduced ice there, he is Students act out their conversations for the class. furious, thus revealing his real motive. And when he tells Chapters 11–16 Peewee Maywit ‘you can tell your grandchildren about this great day’ – the day that ice came to the Mosquito Put students into small groups. Ask them to look up obsession in their dictionaries. Ask them to discuss Allie's Coast – then we realize that he is searching for obsession with making ice. What does it show about his immortality. character? Ask questions to guide the discussion if necessary: What A B O U T T H E F I L M does he make ice for? How does he behave when the villagers up the river already know what it is? Why does ‘The Mosquito Coast’ was filmed in 1986 on location in an he put himself, the Zambus and his children in danger to area of unexplored jungle in Belize in Central America. The take ice over the mountain? p roducer wanted to make the film because he ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK sympathized with Allie Fox's reaction to modern life – to get out of it. Harrison Ford, the actor who plays Allie Fox, 1 Charlie Fox tells this story. We watch Allie Fox go slowly mad through his son's eyes. How does this found the character a welcome challenge after his more affect the story? How does it affect our feelings about conventional heroic roles, such as Han Solo in ‘Star Wars’ the characters? How would the story be different if it and Indiana Jones, and he found himself agreeing with was told in the third person? many of Allie Fox's opinions. The director, Peter Weir, 2 Put students into small groups. Ask them to discuss loved the strangeness of the story and the tremendous the missionaries in this stor y. Do they think the idea of range of emotions from optimism, to humour, to fear, to setting up a mission to tell people about a new religion tragedy. During filming, the crew made an unexpected is a good thing or a bad thing? archaeological discovery – a Mayan temple. G l o s s a r y Communicative activities It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at The following teacher-led activities cover the same the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman sections of text as the exercises at the back of the reader, Active Study Dictionary.) and supplement those exercises. For supplementary exercises covering shorter sections of the book, see the Chapters 1–5 photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. current (n) where the water moves strongly in a river These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the missionary (n) a person who goes to another country to teach the people about his or her religion exception of discussion and pair/groupwork questions, net (n) a piece of material with spaces between the knots, so that can also be used by students working alone in a self- water can go through it but fish cannot access centre. pump (n) a machine for making water move ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK mosquito (n) a fly that drinks blood from people and animals rope (n) a very strong, thick piece of string for tying things Put students into small groups. Ask them to discuss the tank (n) a large container for holding liquid or gas difference between modern life in a rich western country vulture (n) a large wild bird which eats dead animals and country life in a poor country. What is good and bad savage (n) an insulting word for somebody from a country where the about each way of life? Write students' ideas on the way of living is simple board. Which way of life do students think is more scavenger (n) somebody who looks for food and things they can use attractive? in places where people have thrown their rubbish Chapters 6–10 ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION block (n) a large solid piece Chapters 1–5 chemical (n) a substance made from gas, liquids and metals clearing (n) a small area in a forest where there are no trees Put students into groups. Ask them to say what Allie Fox's explode (v) to blow up with a loud noise and break into lots of small character is. Remind them of the following actions. Ask pieces what each one shows about his character: p.1 shouting at hatch (n) a hole in a wall, with a door that people can go through fat people; p.2 being in hospital once for refusing to eat; shelter (n) a covered place that protects you from bad weather p.5 taking his family to a new life without telling his wife; sled (n) a vehicle usually used for travelling on snow

Published and distributed by Pearson Education Factsheet written by Jane Rollason © Pearson Education 2000 Factsheet series developed by Louise James Penguin Readers Factsheets l e v e l

Student’s activities 1 The Mosquito Coast 2 3 Photocopiable Students can answer these questions alone or with one or 4 more other students. Pair/group-only activities are marked. 5 Activities before reading the book 6 1 Read the Introduction on page v of your book. Now Chapter 5 look at the words below and choose words that 1 Underline the words that are wrong. Write the correct describe Allie Fox. Look up any new words in your words. INTERMEDIATE dictionary. (a) Jeronimo is on the coast. weak, ordinary, full of ideas, intelligent, dull, believes he can do anything, a dreamer, (b) Father tells Mr Haddy that America is a great place strong-minded, lazy, practical to live. (c) Father has thrown Mr Haddy over the side of the 2 Talk to a partner. boat. Imagine you and your family have given up everything (d) Mother and Mr Haddy catch five fat fish. and have gone to live in the jungle. What will you miss most? (e) Father doesn’t want to stop at Santa Rosa because it’s not on the map. (f) Little Haddy is a pipanto. Activities while reading the book (g) Father is angry that the Zambus speak English. CHAPTERS 1–5 2 Talk to a partner. Chapter 1 Allie Fox doesn’t like missionaries. Do you think missionaries do good work? Answer these questions. 1 How are the Fox children's lives different from other CHAPTERS 6–10 children’s lives? Find three ways. Chapter 6 2 What does Allie Fox hate about America? Find three Work with a partner. Imagine you are Mr and Mrs Maywit. things. Talk about Father. Who is he? Why has he come? What 3 Why don’t the Fox family need much money to live? difference is he going to make to your lives? Find three reasons. Chapter 7 Chapter 2 1 Answer these questions. 1 How do you think the children feel when they are with (a) How are the children’s daily lives different now their father in the town? Are they embarrassed or from when they lived in Hatfield? proud? (b) What do the Maywits do every day now that they 2 Talk with another student. didn’t do before? Charlie hears his father and Polski shouting at each (c) Why doesn’t Father want Mr Struss in Jeronimo? other. What do you think they say to each other? (d) Why is Father so happy in Jeronimo? Work in pairs. Imagine their argument. Act it out. 2 Talk to a partner. Chapter 3 Father hates anyone to get ill. If one of the children 1 What does Charlie learn about life in Honduras from falls seriously ill, what do you think the Foxes will do? (a) Emily? Chapter 8 (b) the captain of the Unicorn? 1 Match these sentence halves. Join (a)– (f) with (i) – (v i ) . 2 A unicorn is an animal that does not really exist. Why (a) People are afraid of Fat Boy do you think the author chooses this name for the (b) Father says that everything he makes ship that is taking the Fox family to their new life? (c) Charlie thinks the inside of Fat Boy Chapter 4 (d) When the children play Talk to a partner about these questions. Then write your (e) The children have learned answers. (f) The Maywits’ real surname (a) Why do you think Father loves La Ceiba? (i) to find food and medicine in the natural world. (b) Why do the children hate it? (ii) is like the inside of his father’s head. (c) What do you think they will find when they get to (iii) because they think it is magic. Jeronimo? (iv) they pretend they are back in America. (v) is Roper. (vi) he copies from nature.

2 Talk with another student. 2 Talk with another student. Why does Charlie think that the children have done Why do you think the ‘prisoners’ asked Father about better with their Home than their father has? guns at Jeronimo? Are they really prisoners? What do you think? Chapter 12 Chapter 9 1 The white men with their guns arrive at Jeronimo. 1 Answer this question. Why does Charlie understand how the Indians felt At the beginning of the chapter, Father says, ‘This is when the Foxes first arrived in their village? why I came.’ What does he mean? 2 Why does Father say the men are like mosquitoes? 2 People have lived in the jungle for centuries without 3 Talk to a partner. ice. Write down reasons why Fat Boy is a good thing for the jungle and reasons why it is a bad thing. Can you think of a way to make the men leave Compare your reasons with a partner’s. without killing them? Compare your ideas with another pair’s ideas. Which is the best idea? 3 Why is Father so angry that the people in Seville have already seen ice? Chapter 13 Chapter 10 1 Have Allie Fox’s inventions been good or bad for the jungle and the lives of the Indians in Jeronimo? 1 Answer these questions. (a) Why does Father want to take ice into the 2 What lie does Allie tell about America? Do you think he really believes it himself? mountains? (b) What mistakes does Father make in his plan? 3 If you were Mother, what would you want to do now? (c) Why does he refuse to follow Charlie’s advice? Chapter 14 2 Talk with a partner. Work in pairs. Find things in this chapter that show that Father is going mad. (a) Why do the Zambus do what Father says? (b) ‘He couldn’t control his life here.’ Why couldn’t Chapter 15 Father control his life in the jungle? Use these words to write a few sentences about the events at Guampu. CHAPTERS 11–16 large clearing, church, music, TV, Father, lesson, Chapter 11 opposite bank of the river, Father, pipanto, Jerry and 1 Choose a verb and put it in the right form to complete Charlie, Emily, America, lights, Jerry and Charlie, the sentences below. explosion, the sound of a shot, the pipanto, have, can, never see, come back, wash, pack, turn, back down the river bring, cannot believe Chapter 16 (a) The women ...... clothes but 1 Talk with a partner. no one is wearing any. What did Allie Fox do wrong in his life in Honduras? (b) Father thinks these people ...... a white man before. 2 Allie Fox is dead. His family put what is left of his (c) Father can’t believe that the ice body in the earth. What will Mother say about him ...... to water. when they put his body in the ground? Write down your ideas. Show them to a partner. (d) He tells the Indians that next time he ...... them ice. (e) He tells the ‘prisoners’ to escape if they Activities after reading the book ...... (f) The ‘prisoners’ ask Father if he 1 Talk with a partner...... any guns at Jeronimo. What good experiences have the Fox children had in (g) On the way back Father says the Indians Honduras? ...... the ice that he showed 2 Work with a partner. them. It is five years later. Mother and the children are back (h) When they get back home, the Maywits in America. You are Charlie and a new friend. Charlie ...... their bags and go with tells his friend about his time in Honduras. Have their Mr Struss, the missionary. conversation. (i) Father thinks they ......

Published and distributed by Pearson Education Factsheet written by Jane Rollason Factsheet series developed by Louise James © Pearson Education 2000