Themes

Like a good novel, The Perfect Storm returns to a series of general ideas evoked by the particular situations endured by its characters. The main theme might be summed up in the old cliche, "men against the sea," but Junger imbues this venerable idea with numerous contemporary relevancies. Primary is the aforementioned stress on the unchanging danger of fishing at sea and the unrecognized continuity between the days of sail and modern steel and diesel technology. Quotes from Samuel Johnson, Melville's Moby Dick, and the Bible make this point by linking the ancient and the new: the human risks and terrors endured by fishermen have changed little if at all. Nature is still unconquerable by the pitiful efforts of men; though the connection is established only indirectly, the confidence and even arrogance that declared the Titanic unsinkable is still at work in captains like the owner of the...