42 pages • 1 hour read
Peter BenchleyJaws
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1974A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
The Shark
Rather than an antagonist in the traditional sense, the shark that attacks Amity is more of a symbolic enemy in the context of Jaws. The shark is the embodiment of natural nihilism: It has no personality or motivation. It acts purely on instinct, as evidenced by the lengthy descriptions of its sensory abilities as it tracks its prey through the water. To the shark, the travails of the people of Amity are meaningless. It acts a reminder that nature is not beholden to humanity, not even to the narrative conventions of heroes, villains, and characters that people attempt to project on to the world around them. The shark attacks because millions of years of evolution have endowed it with an instinct and a capacity to do so. It has no concept of economics, human trauma, or evil. The shark simply is.
The shark’s power also symbolizes the inherent power of nature. The people of Amity take the ocean for granted. To them, it is a natural resource to exploit each summer. They litter and cluttering the sea, damaging the environment because they need the money to survive. The shark is thus the embodiment of the wronged natural world, a form of natural revenge enacted upon the people who have exploited, damaged, and corrupted their environment. The humans don’t care about what parts of nature they destroy; likewise, the shark does not care which people it attacks. The shark simply symbolizes the fight back from nature against a polluting, corrupting society—a society in which all people are equally responsible for the damage done.
The shark also becomes a symbol of Brody’s battle with himself. He changes over the course of the novel, becoming increasingly paranoid and desperate as more people die. He cannot stop thinking about his wife’s possible betrayal and he longs for the quiet, simple life he once led. The arrival of the shark shows him the brittle nature of this life. Brody’s life may have been relatively peaceful, but it was not necessarily happy. There was always a darkness present in the form of the town’s corruption and Ellen’s unhappiness. This darkness, like the shark, was lurking below the surface and waiting to strike. In the final battle, Brody sees himself reflected in the shark’s eye. The shark is a mirror of his own change, showing him how much he has transformed over the course of the narrative.
Amity
The small seaside town of Amity provides a clear symbolic delineation between the haves and the have-nots. The rich residents of the town and the wealthy summer tourists can frame their decisions without having to worry about survival. The arrival of the “summer people” illustrates that a wealth exists beyond the confines of the small town. The tourists can leave whenever they please and return to their lives, whereas the residents of Amity remain trapped, beholden to the decisions they must make for survival. The people of Amity illustrate class differences and the negative impacts of capitalism.
Mayor Vaughan is a self-interested businessman who is willing to risk lives to grow his fortune. However, he is comparatively poor when placed alongside the summer people. The Amity townspeople resent these lawyers, businessmen, and politicians from the big cities because they have so much power. These “summer people” dictate the survival of the residents of Amity, yet they are simply passing through, unconcerned with the true livelihood of the town. Their wealth becomes a point of resentment, reminding the residents that they are economically dependent on people who barely understand the plight of the small town. The town represents capitalist society in miniature: The poor are forced to tolerate the rich so that they can survive.
At the end of the novel, Amity is ruined. The tourism trade is decimated through the association with the shark attacks. The brief flurry of tourist activity that occurred when people wanted to see the shark will vanish now that the shark has been killed. The mayor has become embroiled in a scandal and fled, leaving behind the smoldering ruins of a community which faces a bleak future. The Amity presented at the end of the novel symbolizes the nihilistic outlook of an imbalanced society: Amity serves no purpose within the confines of capitalism any longer, and thus has no meaning. In the final paragraphs of the book, Brody swims back to the shore. The town to which he is returning has become the symbolic repository for corruption, pain, and an inequality that can no longer be ignored.
Newspapers and Media
The news media plays an important role in Jaws. At first, the sole representative of the media is Harry Meadows. He is the editor of the local Amity newspaper, and his position is indicative of the way power functions in the small town. Meadows has a clear sense of morality and, through his discussions with Brody, he clarifies that he is not able to print the exact, objective truth. Rather, he must consider the opinions of his investors, his advertisers, and the owner of the newspaper. Just as Brody is browbeaten into keeping the beaches open, Meadows is forced to present an altered version of the truth to his readers. The truth is thus a malleable force, subject to the demands of the people who truly own and operate the social institutions of Amity. When those same people have a financial stake in withholding the truth from the public, Meadows has no choice but to obey them. After numerous attacks, however, the truth can no longer be hidden from the world. The arrival of the national newspapers and news outlets means that Meadows cannot be stopped from printing the story.
The arrival of the national news crews provides a different kind of symbolism. Even though the town has been dying a slow, painful death for many years, the national news outlets only care about the violent spectacle of the shark attacks. The plight of the Amity townspeople is irrelevant compared to the exciting, dangerous news of a killer shark. The reporters’ arrival displays the moral rot at the heart of society, in which people only devote their attention to lurid, violent spectacle rather than the collapse of a local community.
By the end of the novel, Meadows has rebelled fully against the owners and advertisers. He feels morally responsible for withholding the truth about the shark from the community and he tries to compensate by writing an apology in the newspaper. The eulogy for Matt Hooper contains within it a eulogy for the town itself. This is a symbolic illustration of how the town itself—through greed, corruption, and self-interest—has brought about its own demise.
