The Blue Lagoon · Chapter
XX: The Dreamer on the Reef explained
Dick and Emmeline begin their morning routine on the island, now twenty-eight months into their stay.
What happens
Dick and Emmeline begin their morning routine on the island, now twenty-eight months into their stay. Dick takes charge of making breakfast, cooking breadfruit and fish, while Emmeline struggles with practical tasks. They notice Mr. Button is missing and search for him, eventually spotting him on the reef.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Survival
The children's daily struggle for food and fire, and Dick's growing responsibility, highlight their isolated survival on the island.
Knowledge and Intuition
Dick's practical knowledge contrasts with Emmeline's lack of understanding of wind direction and fire-making, showing different ways of knowing.
Characters to notice
- Dick
Takes charge of cooking and searching for Mr. Button; shows growing competence and frustration with Paddy's thriftlessness.
- Emmeline
Struggles with practical tasks like knowing windward from leeward; views Paddy and Dick as gods; feels loneliness when Paddy is missing.
- Paddy Button
Absent at the start; his coat and tinder box are left on the sand; eventually spotted on the reef by Dick.
Key passages
“Emmeline had two gods of a sort: Paddy Button and Dick.”
Emmeline idolizes both Paddy and Dick, seeing them as divine figures in her island life.
Reveals Emmeline's perspective on the two male figures in her life.
“Dick came of the people who make sewing machines and typewriters. Mr. Button came of a people notable for ballads, tender hearts, and potheen.”
Dick's ancestry is industrious and practical, while Mr. Button's is poetic and carefree.
Highlights the contrast in their backgrounds and approaches to life.