Journey to the River Sea

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the source text’s use of outdated and offensive terms to discuss Indigenous cultures and its portrayal of colonial stereotypes of Indigenous people.

“Fear is the cause of all evil, she told herself but she was afraid. Afraid of the future…afraid of the unknown. Afraid in the way of someone who is alone in the world.”

The repetition of the word “afraid” creates a tone of tension that emphasizes Maia’s Fear of the Unknown. This stylistic choice reiterates the many reasons she has to fear the world around her and emphasizes her precarious situation as an orphan without a home. The acknowledgement of being “alone in the world” suggests that her fear may be lessened or overcome through connection with others, thus foreshadowing her eventual formation of a chosen family.

“A clever child and a brave one, who had fought hard to overcome the devastating blow of her parents’ death in a train crash in Egypt two years earlier. The staff knew how Maia had wept night after night under her pillow, trying not to wake her friends. If good fortune was to come her way, there was no one who deserved it more.”

At the opening of the novel, Maia is a victim of tragic circumstance but is nonetheless characterized as “clever” and “brave.” As Maia travels to the Amazon and faces the Carters, her inherent traits help her to overcome the obstacles in her path and become a hero rather than a villain, unlike the Carters, who marinate in their fears and prejudices and behave in a decidedly malicious matter. In this moment, the omniscient narrator uses Maia’s actions to create the sense that she is an empathic and sensitive person who fully deserves the family and life of adventure with which she will eventually be rewarded.