Hyper-Reality In The Beach

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In the beach, the role of the map exemplifies the confusion and conflation of the real and the unreal. The entire intrigue about the beach is ignited by the first map Daffy leaves for Richard and is extinguished by the second map Richard makes for his friends, Zeph and Sammy. The first map which Richard describes as “…beautifully colored in” (15) did not only represent the means to finding the beach, but the means to finding “the beach” in its supposed perfection as Richard says, “…on one of a cluster of small islands I noticed a black mark. An X mark… Written underneath in tiny letters was the word “Beach” (15). The “X” marks the spot of the beach among the other cluster of beaches in the map. It represents the idea of a treasure map reinforcing the exceptional reward cliché embedded in Western culture. More so, it reinforced the possibility of the existence of this seemingly perfect paradise on the beach. The second map finally echoes the annihilation of this perceived utopia. It is this map that hinges the sense of paradise to the beach but, as it turns …show more content…

In The beach, the desire to find “a perfect escape” (364), to find authenticity, to collect experiences and to be travellers rather than just mere tourists, is delineated in a complex and extreme way. At first, the backpackers in the novel point out that there is hardly a possibility for the perfect escape because there is nothing that has not already been done. Etienne tells Richard: “Very boring… I want to do something different and everybody wants to do something different, but we all do the same thing” (19). Essentially, the only way to actually do something different would be to construct authenticity in an Eden-like place- the beach. Although paradoxical, the authenticity of the beach hinges mostly on its dissociation from the others, from the “world.” This premise supported when Zeph

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