Chapter 35 Summary

Carlos, Rafael, Manuel, Tony, Louis XVI, and Ernesto witness a school of parrot fish swimming in the turquoise blue sea. Hundreds and thousands of parrot fish swimming together. It looks like a moving rainbow with splashes of tangerine, blood-red hibiscus, and sunset. It is beautiful, and can be no less than a miracle.

Carlos wonders whether this is a farewell vision of everything that is beautiful in his birthplace, and whether wrapped up in this vision is all the truth, beauty, goodness, eternity, and love, dancing with the sharks.

Chapter 35 Analysis

The school of parrot fish is symbolic of beauty even when the world seems bent on showing that there is no beauty left in the world. It is beauty like this that suggests the resiliency of life, even when all else is lost.