Chapters 15 and 16 Summary and Analysis

Hunger or Madness

The beating with the oar and the gunshots had, like some old-time fishermen predicted, probably caused the shark to drift north. The shark may not have been hungry for a short while as it may have been storing parts of the two men it had half-eaten, much like a camel stores water. There was a report of a thirteen-foot tiger shark that was towed ashore while still alive regurgitating, among other items, a well-preserved human arm. The great white can grow to twenty feet or more and weigh several tons. It lives a long life, free of cancer, infections and other disease. Its wounds heal remarkably fast. Yet the juvenile shark that attacked the men nay have sensed that it wouldn't survive in the open ocean; and, therefore, turned toward the coast when it reached Sandy...