Chomp

In these opening chapters, Carl Hiaasen immediately inserts a wild array of odd details to establish the inherent unpredictability of the plot, and the tendency of Wahoo’s parents to rely on him to help keep the family’s affairs running smoothly introduces The Complexities of Problematic Parenting. While Wahoo’s parents are loving and supportive in their way, the opening scenes suggest that despite Mickey Cray’s love for his animals, his approach to both animal wrangling and parenting is not the most responsible. When Mickey suffers a concussion due to a frozen iguana, Wahoo must take over the role of a responsible parent himself by caring for both his father and the animals in the family’s menagerie. This caretaking role is emphasized when Wahoo’s mother, Susan, leaves town and instructs her son, “Take care of your dad” (5). At the most fundamental level, Mickey loves his animals and values them far more than money. While this approach reflects the character’s firm ethical stance, Mickey also has a child’s view of the world; he is stubborn and petulant, and Wahoo is forced to act as a peacemaker between his father and TV host, Derek Badger. For example, when Mickey threatens to ignore the contract he signed, Wahoo intervenes with a very adult bluff, claiming that their “lawyer” (his sister, a law student) has told them the contract doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Of course, Badger and his production assistant, Raven Stark, use contracts every day, and Wahoo’s bluff is unsuccessful, but in the context of his financial desperation, his response is far more mature than Mickey’s threat to use the contract as toilet paper.

From the first sentence, Hiaasen creates a tone of absurdism and surreal humor. Mickey suffers a head injury when a frozen iguana falls from a tree onto his head. Wahoo then defrosts it and cooks it, Mickey hoping to achieve some sort of cosmic retribution by eating it. Even the characters’ names promote an aura of absurdity, for Wahoo is named after a professional wrestler, and names like Derek Badger and Raven Stark connote an almost cartoonish connection to the animal world. The tone of artifice echoes Hiaasen’s theme of The Unreality of Reality TV, a milieu in which nothing is as it appears. Accordingly, Badger is more of a Hollywood star than a rugged alligator wrestler and survivalist, and his attempt to mimic an Australian accent is a nod to Steve Irwin, the famous “Crocodile Hunter” whose exploits are forever enshrined in the genre of reality television. However, unlike Irwin, who had legitimate credentials as a conservationist, a zookeeper, and a passionate “wildlife educator,” Hiaasen’s Badger is all show and no substance, and his persona is as fake as his accent. When he decides to wrestle Alice, Mickey’s biggest alligator, the scene reflects his overinflated ego and delusion of invulnerability, and this initial interaction also serves as foreshadowing that once the crew ventures deep into the Everglades, the star’s bravado will outweigh what little common sense he has. Badger ultimately confuses actual reality with his own artificially created version of it and imagines that Alice will abide by his rules. His lack of respect for nature is a stark contrast to his persona as a wildlife expert, and while the novel as a whole implicitly emphasizes The Importance of Respecting the Natural World, Badger’s careless attitude can only result in disaster.