Sharks In The Time Of Saviors

Spirituality pervades the character of Malia Flores. Her polytheistic beliefs are deeply rooted in the legends of ancient Hawaiian culture. Malia reveres the old gods and legends as symbols of a lost Hawai‘i, an island culture that respected the land before the false gods of capitalism, with their skyscrapers and mega-resorts, invaded. As Malia observes, “When our language, ‘Olelo Hawai‘i, was outlawed, so our gods went, so prayers went, so ideas went, so the island went” (181).

She believes the ancient gods are working through her gifted son, Nainoa, and that his spiritual endowment will save her family and also Hawai‘i. She recalls signs, such as the way animals react around Nainoa, “becoming suddenly subdued” (7). When the sharks save Nainoa instead of eating him, she is convinced he is a vessel of the gods. Addressing Nainoa, she writes, “I know this now because of you. And that the gods were hungry for change and you were that change” (3).

She is a strong woman. When her oldest son Dean hits her, instead of being traumatized by the incident, she mocks him: “She shrugged. ‘You hit like a flight attendant,’ she said. ‘I was in tougher scraps at Walmart Black Friday’” (54). Dean never hits her again.

Yet Malia is not an arrogant character. She acknowledges her mistakes and often overflows with self-doubt. She admits that she was wrong to expect Nainoa to be a savior of Hawai‘i and her family: “With shame now I see that could never have been the case. [...] And, yes, there was something in it for us, too. We did want—we did need—the extra money that came in. I’m sorry” (68). When Dean ends up in jail, Kaui recalls Malia saying “she had failed Dean, had failed all of us if this is what we were” (289).

Although he is a former college football player, Augie lacks mental muscle in his role as the paternal head of the Flores family. He likes to tell jokes, and it is obvious that he turns to humor to mask the pain he feels for failing to provide a prosperous lifestyle for his family. However, his frequent jokes often brighten the household’s mood. For example, during a phone call to his daughter Kaui, he jokes about having sex in a parking lot with her mother: “No, serious, just last night we went for happy hour at Osmani Bar, and I was like, ‘Babe, no one gonna see nothing in the parking lot, and—’” (101). Throughout much of the first half of the book, Augie’s presence is limited to these brief, light moments.

When he loses his job on a sugarcane plantation, Augie works as a baggage handler at the airport. However, after Nainoa dies, he shuts down mentally and becomes unemployed. He becomes so catatonic that his wife and daughter must take care of him.

Washburn revives Augie at the end of the novel. It is notable that Augie gets the last word in the final chapter, the only one narrated from his point of view. However, given that the author devotes nine chapters to Malia’s point of view and only one to Augie’s, it is difficult to view Augie as anything but a weak father figure. In the last chapter, Augie and Malia return to Waipi‘o Valley, where Nainoa died, and encounter the same night marchers they saw the day they conceived Nainoa. When Augie sees Nainoa amid the night marchers, he rejoices at the spiritual resurrection of his son.

Kaui possesses a more realistic perspective on life than her siblings and parents. She expresses herself in a manner that ranges from frank to blunt when she interacts with family members and others. She bluntly confronts her mother about the favoritism she shows toward Nainoa, even after his death. For example, when she sees Malia smelling Nainoa’s clothes, she tells her, “You’d never do that if it was me” (316).

Kaui studies engineering at a college in San Diego and excels in her studies before she abandons them to return to Hawai‘i after Nainoa’s death. She loves hula dancing and rock climbing as well as scaling old, abandoned buildings. Her passion for climbing seems symbolic of her desire to scale the ladder of success and break out of the shadow of her two brothers, particularly the prodigy Nainoa.

Kaui also likes to work with her hands. At the end of the novel, she finds her calling working on a local farm on the Big Island.