To Paradise

Part 2 of Book 2 provides context for David’s childhood and family history, expanding on the vague hints that David alludes to in his memories in Part 1. The point of view shifts, with this section narrated in the first person by David Kawika “Wika” Bingham. This is the first inclusion of first-person narration in the novel, and it creates greater intimacy and insights into a character’s interiority. The intimacy of first-person narration helps the reader understand Wika’s decisions, which might otherwise be challenging. The narration also reflects the degree to which Wika lives in his own world and makes choices that make little sense to anyone else. He is the only one who can explain and rationalize the life he has lived.

Wika’s narrative is largely retrospective as he looks back on his past, interspersed with moments in which he hallucinates or envisions physical actions that he is no longer capable of. Readers know that Wika is dying based on the letter David receives in Part 1, but it is unclear if Wika himself understands the depth of his illness. His increasing sense of freedom and optimism are examples of dramatic irony and also reveal how Wika likely felt when he was being seduced by Edward and the allure of a utopian life at Lipo-wao-nahele. Wika wonders, “what if I could learn how to walk again? […] What if I was getting better after all?” (284). He is hopeful and excited, while those around him can see there is no possibility of hope or recovery.

Wika’s story reveals another example of a privileged and sheltered young man being seduced by an ambiguous figure who may or may not have malicious intentions. Much like David Bingham in Book 1, Wika feels weighed down by the expectations of living up to his family name and lineage; he wishes he could simply be loved for himself. While David Bingham embodies the existing privilege and power of his family legacy, Wika exists in a more ambiguous reality where his family clings to a mostly vanished past. Wika’s connection to royalty is effectively meaningless because the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown by US-backed corporate interests in an illegal coup in 1893. Moreover, as a person of color, Wika is often marginalized despite the wealth and influence his family retains, particularly when he ventures outside of Hawaii. Wika becomes resentful, reflecting that he “had been taken up with learning Hawaiian history and bits of Hawaiian language […] how was that knowledge meant to be useful to me, when the rest of the world simply didn’t care?” (291). Much like his son David, Wika becomes uncertain of his role in the world when his cultural identity is undervalued and disrespected.

Wika’s weak sense of self and lack of purpose renders him vulnerable to manipulation. Wika’s mother, like David’s grandfather in Book 1, is partially correct in believing that her son needs protection, but she alienates her only child by being rigid and strict, rather than giving him the affection and love that he craves. Edward has a compelling vision of social justice, activism, and a return to Hawaiian sovereignty; his ambitious hopes are catalyzed by other important social movements in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Civil Rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War protests. The rising action in this section increases as Edward is exposed to different political ideologies. For example, Edward and Wika attend a meeting for Hawaiian activists where a Black man speaks and connects the struggle for Hawaiian sovereignty to the Civil Rights movement; the speaker deplores how America has turned Indigenous Hawaiians into “beggars in your own land […] turning you, you kings and queens, into jesters and clowns” (310). The imagery of royalty is particularly powerful given Wika’s family lineage and contributes to the novel’s critique of American history. While Edward is misguided in his attempts at establishing a new community, he notices that American interests have usurped traditional Hawaiian culture and Indigenous sovereignty, a viewpoint shared by Wika’s mother even if she disagrees with Edward’s proposed solution.

However, it is not clear how Edward intends for a small community at Lipo-wao-nahele to become a significant source of anti-oppressive activism. There are also hints that Edward simply wants to possess unchecked power and influence. Wika worries that “it would be his kingdom after all, and we his subjects, and no one would be able to deny him ever again” (331). In Book 1, Edward Bishop imagines a utopian future in California where individuals can make their own destinies in a less rigid and stratified society. In Book 2, Edward has similar visions of a better future for himself, Wika, and other Hawaiians, but he turns inward rather than outward. Wika looks back with regret at the immaturity and arrogance that he and Edward displayed, reflecting that, “we were grown men, long past the age at which we should have been pretending, and yet we were pretending as if our lives depended upon it” (333). With this, Yanagihara expands the theme of the Dangerous Allure of Utopian Possibilities, exploring the pitfalls of individualistic utopian dreams in situations that demand community and collective action. This latter point is emphasized by the inclusion of the speech by the Black activist, as the Civil Rights movement in the US made progress through long-term, widespread activism like boycotts, protests, and civil disobedience.

Unlike the western frontier and spaciousness offered by a move to California, Lipo-wao-nahele is small, constricted, and limited in what it can offer. While Book 1 provides hope that California will be the paradise that David and Edward long for, Book 2 makes it clear that Wika and Edward’s fantasies of a utopian life are impossible. Ironically, access to Lipo-wao-nahele is made possible by private ownership (Wika’s family owns the land), and Wika and Edward are only able to survive there because of food and supplies brought to them. Wika and Edward, particularly the latter, indulge in fantasies of self-sufficiency and disrupting existing systems, but they remain completely dependent on those systems. The critique of an attempt to construct a “paradise” is especially pertinent in the context of Hawaii; since European contact in the 18th century, Hawaii was often idealized as a tropical paradise by Europeans and Americans, but this led to exploitation and the disenfranchisement of the Indigenous Hawaiian population.

Doomed from the beginning, Wika and Edward’s attempt at establishing paradise brings about tragic consequences. Wika alienates his son, and David ends up estranged not only from his father but from his grandmother and his birthplace. With this, Yanagihara strengthens the theme of Estrangement Due to Conflicting Beliefs and Values. David and Wika both carry the same family name, David Kawika, but in Part 1, there is a flashforward that reveals David eventually has his own son, whom he names Nathaniel: “[T]he first firstborn male Bingham in generations not to be called David” (223). This choice reflects the symbolic severing of David’s connection to his lineage and Hawaiian culture.

Edward’s death by drowning may be accidental or intentional; either way, the death reflects how Edward was overwhelmed by delusions of grandeur, literally getting in over his head. Wika survives, but his blindness and other illnesses leave him helpless and dependent on care. Wika’s decision to settle on the isolated land seems like an adult exercising agency and control over his decisions, but it ends up reducing him to a childlike state. As the end of his life nears, Wika feels a sense of regret and awareness that he has made the wrong choices, admitting that, “I didn’t know how to fix what I had done, I didn’t know how to make it right. The truth is that I was weak […] the truth is that I gave up” (345).

While Book 1 ends with a vision of idealistic optimism as David Bingham heads off into the unknown, Book 2 ends with a portrait of regret and delusions in the wake of an attempt to chase utopia. Wika uses language echoing the end of David Bingham’s narrative in Book 1 when he imagines himself beginning to walk: “I won’t stop, I won’t need to rest, not until I make it there, all the way to you, all the way to paradise” (359). However, the conclusion of this narrative undermines and subverts the notion of paradise: Wika has been profoundly wrong about his vision of what paradise could be, which unsettles the idea that paradise can ever be attained.