The story of one chase: JAWS, Moby Dick and Ernest Hemmingway

No man is an island. And so do books and movies. Influence of one story on another is very interesting to study. The way authors use their literary inheritance opens many interesting connections. Peter Benchley’s book has many circles of meanings, based on classic literature, history, and Steven Spielberg’s film added more connections to it. Let’s see behind the curtain and find out how «Jaws», «Moby Dick», and «The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber» are tied together and more!

I. Coincidences

Did you know that sort of book, which people usually take on vacation? Many books of that kind were written only for one summer — cheap plot, cheap characters, cheap cover... People could easily forget that book on the beach and not worry about it. No one thought that this book could be «serious» and stay for years in the world of literature.

It’s like the sea. Or — like shadows in the sea.

Dangerous shadows with triangle fins appear and disappear in waves from time to time. Mostly nobody notices it. But once in a few decades people really notice those shadows and never forget that meeting.

And sometimes everything happens in one time — and shadows, and sea, and book.

And director.

And Jaws

II. Shark and bank check

Shark theme was on the wave of interest in the middle of the past century in the postwar USA. Many downed pilots and navy from sunken ships met with sea predators and found out that most of the so-called tricks and shark repellents simply do not work. Many cases started a lot of research. People started to study sharks. People start to look more carefully after the hotel’s beaches. People started patrolling and, to the horror of bathers and hoteliers, it turned out that these predators are frequent guests in the coastal zone. They came and went, like other shadows in the sea.

And one writer started to think — what if one of those shadows didn’t go away?

But he hasn’t started to write about it yet.

He read news about captured huge white sharks, studied the history of shark attacks, and read memories of survivors. But there was no one page of the future novel.

Book needed one more thing. Writer needed people who could pay for this story.

But one day a writer was invited for lunch. The talk was. The bank check appeared.

A huge shark headed to Amity Island.

III. Three circles of novel: Hemingway’s view and pegleg captain

Novel, without name in early days, based on many different historic facts and literary reminiscences. We can see a bit from Mario Puzo’s «Godfather» in Amity mayor (his jaws, by the way, in the novel are sometimes bigger, then shark’s). We can see in chase scenes some from Hemingway’s «The old man and the sea».

But if we look deeper — we will see another roots of that nameless novel. And instead of big fish — there is a big whale in waves. And instead of poor Brody, so afraid of water and hunting, we can see poor Francis Macomber. And in the beach massacre on Amity we can see a reflection of New Jersey’s terror in 1916.

The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a well known series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey between July 1 and 12, in which four people were killed and one critically injured. Characters in the books and in the movie both remembered this horror. That was real horror, indeed. Waves and waves of attacks started waves and waves of panic.

«Martin, it’s all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July»

That Mayor Vaughn’s quote was so close to real hotelier’s quotes.

That all started on a beach — like on Amity in the book. Young handsome lad, sea, black shadow, daylight, many other swimmers. They didn’t save that lad, and a red stain went with the flow and people on a beach, cried and crowded like a huge scared centipede.

And another victim later.

Newspapers dazzled with headlines, panicked hoteliers summoned three ichthyologists, who said that — for sure — it can’t be a shark. Never. And if this is a shark for some reason, there will be no more attack.

They said that.

They said that, and sharks came into the river in the evening of that very day. No one expected sharks here, and predators took two: a boy and a young man.

On a wave of panic, everyone stood up under arms — sheriffs, fishermen, brothers and fathers, caring men and women. Several predators were caught, and until the next attack, people lived for several hours in the belief that they had defeated the danger. The last victim was a teenager, but thanks to his friends, who literally pulled him out of the jaws, he stayed alive.

And after, as they have no reason to appear, those dangerous shadows just dissolved in the sea. Scientists still don’t know what species responsible for those attacks and how many of them were involved. But The Jersey Shore shark attacks forced ichthyologists to reconsider the general ideas about the behavior of sharks and the nature of their attacks, because until 1916 the knowledge of mankind in this area consisted only of hypotheses and assumptions.

Sharks gone.

They left hoteliers in shock, losing their money and trying with all their power not to let rumors come into the vacationer’s ears.

They left newspaper’s headliners, full of prehistoric fear.

They left scars on people’s bodies, people who tried to save victims — those huge bites will be shown to chroniclers even forty years later.

And, maybe in the first time, one or another talking about sea massacre will mention «lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes» and the horror that a scream or even a whisper of «shark» instills in people.

The first circle of novels based on shark attacks.

Second is about an attack on a family.

Before studying that circle more closely, it is important to say — that more about schemes, and how those schemes changed or — stayed without change.

So, family circle.

In September 1936 Ernest Hemingway published in Cosmopolitan magazine his story «The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber». Peter Benchley used the scheme of this story.

We have He here. Amity Police chief Martin Brody. He is a soft person, kind, he has principles and he is afraid of water. He didn’t belong to Amity and — in many ways he feels out of place.

We have She here — Mrs Brody. She had a bright and interesting past and rather boring present.

Brody, like Macomber, meets with his Hunter, Robert Wilson, — Matt Hooper. Matt is handsome, self confident, he feels comfortable in his own skin. And more — he belongs to the circle to which she once belonged.

Police chief, of course, can’t stop what’s about to happen — like Macomber. He is obsessed and tormented by the thought about that.

As Macomber, who overcame his fear and earned, at least for a second, the respect of both the Hunter and the Wife, Brody had to overcome his fear of water, and this gave him strength to confront Matt.

Hemingway’s scheme was needed in the death of the main hero. And in that point we see how summer books turned this story in other ways. And, that ichthyologist was quite an unpleasant man anyway. His death appeared, and Brody - that knightley hearted man - tried to rescue him. Helplessly in the book.

The third circle is the circle of pegleg captain.

This circle is probably the most important.

He was the captain that no whale left until he met it, white as an iceberg. He was a fisherman who never left a shark — until he met a huge one that dragged his boat to the bottom.

And Ahab, and Quint wanted to harpoon their arch enemies so fanatically that they destroyed their ships.

Boats left the ship from Nantucket three times.One of the first to die was a Parsi hunter. The ichthyologist was the first to be killed in the shark cage.

Both in Melville’s novel Moby Dick, and in this as yet untitled novel, death was almost word for word one:

«While Daggoo and Queequeg were stopping the strained planks; and as the whale swimming out from them, turned, and showed one entire flank as he shot by them again; at that moment a quick cry went up. Lashed round and round to the fish’s back; pinioned in the turns upon turns in which, during the past night, the whale had reeled the involutions of the lines around him, the half torn body of the Parsee was seen; his sable raiment frayed to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old Ahab (H. Melville «MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE»).

«The fish broke water fifteen feet from the boat, surging upward in a shower of spray. Hooper’s body protruded from each side of the mouth, head and arms hanging limply down one side, knees, calves, and feet from the other.

In the few seconds while the fish was deep in the water, Brody thought he saw Hooper’s glazed, dead eyes staring open through his face mask. As if in contempt and triumph, the fish hung suspended for an instant, challenging mortal vengeance». (P. Benchley «Jaws»)

The captain is the last to die — the shark takes the possessed Quint with him, just like Moby Dick takes away Ahab.

«Ahab stooped to clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the heavy eye-splice in the rope’s final end flew out of the stark-empty tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its depths». (H. Melville «MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE»).

«Suddenly, Quint lost his footing and fell backward into the water. "The knife!" he cried, lifting his left leg above the surface, and Brody saw the rope coiled around Quint’s foot.

Brody looked to the starboard gunwale. The knife was there, embedded in the wood. He lunged for it, wrenched it free, and turned back, struggling to run in the deepening water. He could not move fast enough. He watched in helpless terror as Quint, reaching toward him with grasping fingers, eyes wide and pleading, was pulled slowly down into the dark water». (P. Benchley «Jaws»)

Just one survived to tell the story. Survived by clinging to a life buoy (in the whale novel, the buoy was an unclaimed coffin). Only one survived, the one who ended up on the ship by accident, the one who was a stranger in this world. Ismail survived, and so did Brody.

And so did whale. And so did shark.

«Till, gaining that vital centre, the black bubble upward burst; and now, liberated by reason of its cunning spring, and, owing to its great buoyancy, rising with great force, the coffin life-buoy shot lengthwise from the sea, fell over, and floated by my side. Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day and night, I floated on a soft and dirgelike main. The unharming sharks, they glided by as if with padlocks on their mouths; the savage sea-hawks sailed with sheathed beaks». (H. Melville «MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE»).

«Brody clutched the cushion, and he found that by holding it in front of him, his forearms across it, and by kicking constantly, he could stay afloat without exhausting himself.

The fish came closer. It was only a few feet away, and Brody could see the conical snout. He screamed, an ejaculation of hopelessness, and closed his eyes, waiting for an agony he could not imagine.

Nothing happened. He opened his eyes. The fish was nearly touching him, only a foot or two away, but it had stopped. And then, as Brody watched, the steel-gray body began to recede downward into the gloom. It seemed to fall away, an apparition evanescing into darkness». (P. Benchley «Jaws»)

IV. Novel about fish

Author, despite such clear quotes — and thanks to its, despite the plot’s parallel — and thanks to its, created quite an unusual story. Unusual like Mellville’s book. Because…

«It was the first novel about fish», — Peter Benchley said about the book, in which the first scene was from a fish’s view. He gave a soul to that fish like Santiago to his marline. But Benchley gave the book, with all that background, the title «Jaws». That title highlighted the most scary and soullessness in fish image — jaw, not even teeth.

Honestly, it doesn’t even matter what Moby Dick character or shark character means — it’s a heaven’s punishment or reflection of humanity. More important is what humans can see in that animal mirror. What characteristics it pulls out from people’s souls.

Novel about fish called «Jaws» — and not only shark had those jaws. The mayor, who could forge expert opinions for the sole purpose of not stopping the season, had jaws. The ichthyologist, who wanted his moment of fame, had jaws. Most people on the island had jaws. Most but Brody, who was a stranger.

Novel about whale’s whiteness.

Novel about fish’s jaws.

V. Dreamer

The book was noticed before publication. And decided to put that story on the screens. With one little change - “Happy end maybe”?

Young Steven Spielberg was chosen to make that movie. He loved the book but wanted the shark to win - people in the book weren't good. He recreates Amity’s world with his belief in humanity, with all that is closer to his heart, future author of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. His people are people who are open to something new. His ichthyologist survived, because he wasn't after a love affair or fame, he was after knowledge, he was able to take risks. His chief can put his own life at risk for saving people’s lives. He is strong, and he finished the shark. His captain is not a maniac, he started his personal war with sharks from USS Indianapolis and he share life jackets with all but himself. They were new people, people, who were able to fight for a new world and new knowledge, expand horizons. People with good hearts.

What about the shark? Thanks to technical hardships Spielberg put many scenes from shark’s view, from the underwater, added more suspense in the movie.

Spielberg removed all hints of chip fiction from the story. His film is a fantasy, the desire to show not the number of victims eaten or the bloodiness of revenge, but the mechanism of the emergence of fear, the desire to reflect changes in the characters of the characters — the captain, this lone wolf, begins to take care of the sheriff in his own way, the ichthyologist, for whom everything was at first only a light adventure, takes responsibility, and the sheriff, so gentle, becomes a real defender of the city, ready to defend his family.

As for the shark, here the director does not create the image of a soulless machine. He is trying to learn the unknown, as in the future he will learn unidentified flying objects.

VI. Sharks gone

The novel and movie became bestsellers.

They both provoked a rise in horror towards sharks. People began to exterminate these fishes. Peter Benchley later spoke out in defense of white sharks. Until his death, he fought against the unwittingly created image of the killing machine.

The image of the director did not need protection — he only proved once again how easily people are ready to recognize the unknown as dangerous.

Words by Polly T, Artist, designer, philologist

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