The Eyes and the Impossible

“‘We would like you to be our eyes,’ Freya said. ‘You would be good,’ Meredith said. I wanted to be their eyes. So I became the Eyes. ‘Don’t screw it up,’ Samuel said.”

The kind and commanding Freya, the encouraging Meredith, and the cynical Samuel rule the park and bestow the position of the Eyes on the dog. The bison’s dialogue establishes their key personality traits and dynamic with one another, while Samuel’s remark provides humor to undercut the solemnity of Johannes’s appointment as the Eyes.

“The park has an Equilibrium, as all natural places do, and the Bison watch it and protect it. They are the Keepers of the Equilibrium. If the Equilibrium is upset, there are problems. If the Parks People cut a new path across the width of the park, that means more people will come where the animals had been alone and undisturbed, and that might upset the balance. If there are new buildings, that upsets the Equilibrium. New roads, new rules. All affect the Equilibrium.”

The Equilibrium embodies one of the novel’s central themes: the importance of beauty and balance. This passage explains the significance of Johannes’s work as the Eyes in keeping that balance, and the responsibility he feels to watch over the park and its animals explains why he feels he must remain on the island, foreshadowing his decision to leave in the novel’s climax.

“I hadn’t been touched by a human in a thousand years. What was happening to me? How had I let that happen?”

A young boy pets Johannes in the plaza while he’s admiring the paintings, underscoring the novel’s interest in the importance of beauty and balance. Eggers frames Johannes’s appreciation for art as a positive trait, but one that can endanger him if he allows the paintings to distract him from his surroundings. This event foreshadows Johannes’s capture by Twisty.

“In the corner of the rectangle, finally I saw a hundred or so grasping human hands, and these hands were all blue, when in life there are no blue hands that I have seen. Why would this picture be this way, I wondered. Why why why? And then I felt the movement of air near my neck. Then I felt a snake on my neck. Then I heard a click.”

Johannes’s capture by Twisty escalates the stakes of the plot and highlights The Fight for Freedom. Twisty the Trouble Traveler leashes Johannes while he’s mesmerized by his favorite painting. Eggers uses a metaphor to compare the leash to “a snake,” emphasizing the grave danger the object represents to the protagonist. Throughout the novel, leashes symbolize captivity.

“I followed Sonja back to the safety of the park, back to the woods as Bertrand and Yolanda and everyone else thumped their wings and rose above the treetops cackling and whooping in happy skyward soundings.”

The Assistant Eyes’ rescue of Johannes from Twisty and his band of thieves signals the novel’s thematic interest in The Power of Friendship and Cooperation. The success of this mission demonstrates what the animals can achieve when they work together and gives added credence to their ambitious plans to free the bison later in the story.

“Over the years I had wondered if they wanted to be free like I was free, but because they never themselves mentioned it the notion did not much occupy my mind. But now, having been kept myself, having been leashed, controlled, held captive, and knowing the abandon I felt as a free-again dog, I wanted the same for them.”

Although his captivity with Twisty is relatively brief, it has a lasting impact on Johannes. The dog cannot shake the memory of how it felt to be “leashed, controlled, held captive,” and he projects his desire for greater freedom onto the bison rather than fully processing his own feelings and desires. The plan to free the bison becomes the protagonist’s focus for much of the remainder of the novel.

“After the splash, though, this toddler’s face did not emerge in the usual time, and so the rest of the turtles also said, ‘Oh no!’ and for some reason unknown to me I said, ‘Yup,’ and I jumped from the shore. I had never saved a child from drowning before.”

The rescue of the drowning toddler marks an important moment both in the plot and Johannes’s character arc. His heroism is instinctive rather than a deliberate decision, as demonstrated when the dog’s body moves toward the child involuntarily and when he speaks “for some reason unknown to [him].” This brave act yields unfortunate consequences; Johannes’s freedom is restricted by the increased presence of the Control-the-Animals People, and he must navigate the park with greater wariness.

“Bertrand is my brother, and we know each other and agree on most things, but this coda-madness I cannot abide. Wonderful? No. Heroic? Not a chance. There is no reason the gulls cannot go on living even after losing their ability to fly.”

Louis’s death foreshadows Bertrand’s attempted coda and Johannes’s efforts to convince his friend that he can “go on living” after his wing is injured. Their starkly opposed views on the gulls’ ritual contrasts their respective character traits with greater clarity: The melancholy and aspiring Bertrand sees something “[w]onderful” and [h]eroic” in his culture’s custom while Johannes refuses to watch because his zeal for life makes the ritual seem like a senseless waste.

“If there are troubles in your mind, you should think first of the troubles of others; it is the essence of liberation. That is, freedom begins the moment we forget ourselves.”

Initially, Johannes’s connects his passion for freedom to the value he places on being a good and loyal friend to the point that he neglects his own desires and emotions in his consuming focus on freeing the bison. Over the course of his character arc, Johannes learns see his personal longing for freedom as separate from his deep love for and loyalty to his friends and his home.

“‘We worried for you,’ Meredith said. ‘I’m proud of you,’ Freya said. ‘Your bravery with that child was conveyed to us. By Bertrand. I’m so proud. But we miss you.’ ‘Your Assistants are not good at this job,’ Samuel said.”

In Johannes’s first meeting with the bison since his rescue of the toddler, the bison affirm his importance as the Eyes and also express their care for him on a personal level. Johannes greatly needs their reassurance at this point of the novel because his confidence remains damaged by his time in captivity and by the weeks he spent hiding in his lair amidst increased vigilance by the Parks People, underscoring the ways in which Johannes’s role as the Eyes is central to his identity and the impact of isolation on one’s perspective and sense of self.

“Freya’s eyes had grown sad. ‘I’m so sorry, son,’ she said. ‘We do live on an island. I was born on the mainland.’ She said the word quickly, as one speedy word. ‘Samuel was born on the mainland, too. But now we’re here, and we’re happy here. Here is home. And there’s no way to leave.’”

Johannes’s worldview is shaken when the bison confirm the goats’ statement that the park is on an island. This revelation has serious implications not only for the protagonist’s plan to free the bison but also for his own sense of purpose in the world as the park’s Eyes. Freya’s sadness for the dog and the way she addresses him as her son underscore her role as the protagonist’s mother figure. Eggers gives Johannes a key component of a coming-of-age arc as he recognizes his parental figure as fallible and capable of breaching his trust. As Johannes grows into his full independence and freedom, he’s able to hold this truth side by side with the certainty of Freya’s love for him.

“She said her name was Helene. I had never heard this name before, but it sounded both regal and smooth like a trickle of warm water, and thus far she herself seemed both regal and smooth like warm water. So why was she so apart and so alone? ‘Oh gosh,’ she said, ‘they wouldn’t want to talk to me! I don’t blame them. Look at me. I’m a freak!’”

In Johannes’s first meeting with Helene, he uses a simile to describe the goat as “regal and smooth like warm water,” underlining the dog’s great admiration for her as well as the value he places on friendship and respect for his fellow creatures. Johannes’s friendship is all the more meaningful to Helene because her fellow goats regard her as “a freak” because of her appearance. Because of Johannes’s kindness, Helene goes on to play an essential role in the novel’s climax and resolution, emphasizing the power of friendship and cooperation.

“I sat and looked at this wall for some time, knowing that it was impenetrable but also not believing that my home was no longer available to me. That it had ended. That my hollow was now a wall. Only occasionally have I felt real anger toward humans. I felt it toward Twisty, my captor, and once or twice I have felt it toward the drivers of vehicles who drive recklessly, who endanger us animals and also their fellow humans. But I have never felt real anger toward the humans who work in this park.”

The Parks People fill Johannes’s home with cement, prompting the protagonist to reflect on humans’ impact on animals in general and on his own complex relationship with humanity in particular. Because at this point in the narrative, Johannes does not yet know that he is half-coyote (which causes the Parks People to view him as an unwanted and dangerous animal), the violation of his lair feels deeply senseless and confusing to him.

“Henceforth, among your kind, there will be no differentiation based on tiny deviations of physical form. There will be no snickering based on things like the sort of cross-stripes one of you has or doesn’t have, or the direction one’s fur goes, or the color of your eyes or hooves. Such behavior is an affront to the dignity of your species. Is that understood?”

Johannes advances the theme of friendship and cooperation by using the goats’ deference to him to intervene on Helene’s behalf. The formal language and regal bearing with which the dog delivers this order provides humor, and allows Eggers to embed a lesson for young readers against bullying people for “deviations of physical form.”

“Why not bring the Bison on the ship? Back to the main-land! Where we’ll go, there’s more than enough room for all the Bison in the world. There’s a billion miles where they can run and graze and sleep—and even hide, if they need to. The land never ends. I’ve lived there all my life and haven’t seen even a tiny part of it.”

All three of the novel’s major themes come together when Helene proposes a way to bring the bison to the mainland. The vast scale and majesty conveyed in the phrase “The land never ends” emphasizes the importance of beauty and balance and provides a concrete goal for  the fight for freedom since the bison will have space to run to their hearts’ content. Helene concocts the plan to thank Johannes for his friendship, pointing to the power of friendship and cooperation—both of which will be needed to pull this ambitious scheme off.

“Me as the Keeper of the Equilibrium? Sonja must have seen the astonishment on my face. ‘But who else could it be?’ she asked. And though I was flattered to be thought of this way, and could see the logic, given my proximity to the Bison, all I could think of was Bertrand. He was the one I went to for wisdom. Could I be the Keeper of the Equilibrium when I looked to someone else for guidance?”

Through Sonja, Eggers introduces the suggestion that Johannes become the new Keeper of the Equilibrium after the bison are freed, creating two possible futures for Johannes—one in which he remains in the park and succeeds the bison as Keeper, and another that he has not yet considered in which he will leave for the mainland instead. Johannes’s worry over his ability to take the bison’s place reinforces the value the novel places on the importance of beauty and balance.

“‘Listen to me carefully. Your father was a coyote.’ I laughed. I laughed because it was such a stupid thing for them to say—to say such a terrible thing at a time like this, when we had so much planning to do. ‘I’m sorry, son,’ Freya said.”

The revelation that he is half-coyote represents another major challenge to the protagonist’s worldview and his sense of identity. He is not prepared to hear “such a terrible thing” because he is already dealing with several major pieces of new information. Eggers foreshadows Johannes’s identity as half-coyote in his laugh, his speed, the pictures of coyotes that look like him, and the way that the Control-the-Animals People recognize him even with the dog sweater.

“‘I’m so sorry,’ Bertrand said again. He looked at each one of us, as if he planned to depart the world then and there, from the shame of it all. ‘Stop that,’ Angus said. ‘You’ll live.’ ‘You will,’ I said, and Bertrand closed his eyes, releasing new tears. We all knew he would never fly the same again.”

Eggers foreshadows Bertrand’s injury in his reckless behavior at the archery field in Chapter 10. The animals’ awareness that the gull “[will] never fly the same again” foreshadows his decision to perform the coda. However, Johannes ultimately succeeds in convincing his friend that his life is still worth living, emphasizing the power of friendship and cooperation.

“My friends, I can’t tell you the vaulting joy I felt when I saw them pass through that gate! When I saw them drifting through—and then away from!—that metal grid of fencing, leaving that steel crosshatch behind.”

Eggers uses repetition and parallel structure to emphasize the narrator’s exultation at seeing the bison leave their pen. The descriptions of the gate as “a metal grid of fencing” and a “steel crosshatch” emphasize Johannes’s belief that the bison will soon be in the vastness of nature and far from man-made confinements. At last, the Bison Freedom Gambit—this seemingly impossible feat that the protagonist has dreamed of for so long—is in motion, marking an important milestone for the themes of freedom and friendship.

“‘Today we do something important,’ I whispered, and she glanced at me. Now her eyes were bright and sure. ‘Today we do something new, something important, and something very risky,’ she roared in a bell-clear voice. Everyone around—the goats, the Bison, me—was instantly locked into attention. ‘It will take total commitment, total belief,’ she said, louder now.”

Helene’s speech to the goats gives them hope and courage that the plan to sneak the bison aboard the ship will succeed. Johannes helps her start her speech just as she did for him back in Chapter 29. In this way, Eggers makes the friends’ cooperation essential to the fight for freedom.

“We have lived cloistered lives. Limited lives. But you have freed our eyes and our minds. What you did today mattered. It did. It mattered a great deal. You gave us the sea. You gave us this unbounded sight. And we will not forget it.”

The bison’s refusal to board the ship to the mainland forces Johannes to confront his desire for an expansive life of freedom and adventure. Freya’s certainty that the “unbounded sight” of the sea is liberation enough for her, Meredith, and Samuel frees Johannes of his obligation to succeed them as Keeper of the Equilibrium. The bison’s decision to remain on the island nuances the theme of the fight for freedom. Although Johannes cannot liberate them in the physical sense he intended, his heroic actions free “[their] eyes and [their] minds.”

“‘We will protect you,’ Helene said. ‘And when you get to the mainland, you can stay with us, or simply run free. You can run free for a thousand years.’ I thought about this. I knew it was true. I knew I would go. And I knew I needed to see Bertrand.”

Helene offers Johannes the chance to accompany her to the mainland and experience beauty and freedom far beyond what he’s known in the park, revealing an alternate path for his future. Running serves as a motif of the fight for freedom throughout the story, so the goat’s statement that Johannes can “run free for a thousand years” offers a powerful image of liberation.

“The magnificent bird that was Bertrand began to drop from the sky. ‘Stop!’ I yelled. He plummeted like a ragged mess of bone and feather. ‘Please!’ I roared. I summoned the earth. I summoned the clouds. I summoned the Sun. ‘Bertrand,’ I yelled. ‘There is more!’”

In one of the novel’s tensest scenes, the protagonist strives to convince Bertrand that his life still has meaning even though his wing is permanently injured. To save his best friend, Johannes draws upon his greatest strengths, including his speed and his zeal for life. The juxtaposition of the two descriptions of Bertrand as a “magnificent bird” and “a ragged mess of bone and feather” conveys the narrator’s fear at what will be lost if the gull perishes.