The Back of the Turtle

“It was one of the small ironies of biology that an organism designed to increase crop production could also be modified to destroy nations.”

Domidion takes elements of the natural world and adapts them for instruments of destruction. He shows no desire to treat these potentially catastrophic materials with care or consideration. His distance from nature is so great that he can only relate to it by perverting it into a method of profit.

“Like it or not, without the initiative and vision of companies such as Domidion, the world would starve.”

Dorian thus justifies the consequences of Domidion’s mistakes. He argues that because their progress in the field of biotechnology is vital to the world’s continued survival, it’s permissible for the company to occasionally wipe out a community or two. But this is the case only because decades of mistreating the Earth have led to alterations in the landscape. Domidion’s continual destruction of the Earth feeds into the demand for their products. Dorian also declines to acknowledge that humans could attempt to stop disturbing the Earth on such a large scale and let the natural world regenerate its life-giving resources.

“‘But he was wrong,’ said Crisp, ‘for it ain’t the vanities of physics what’ll do us in, but the vulgarities of our own greed.’”

Crisp asserts that science in and of itself is not harmful. Curiosity and the desire to create and experiment are natural and helpful instincts. It’s only when the worst of human instincts are applied to scientific research, like at Domidion, that humanity undoes itself.

“‘Everything we do, all of us,’ Dorian told the audience, ‘is in the pursuit of profit.’”

Depending on how it’s viewed, these words are either a rich man’s tone-deaf generalization or an unfordable truth. Even the morally sound Gabriel joined Domidion, presumably in pursuit of prestige and wealth.

“The beginning of days. The Indians have arrived. Soon the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and the animals, big and small, will come home, two by two. And then the people.”

After glimpsing Mei-ling in town, Sonny forecasts the rebirth of Samaritan Bay. His prediction that the animals will come home in pairs of two is one of many biblical allusions. In this case, he references the story of Noah’s Ark, in which pairs of animals were spared from an apocalyptic flood.

“‘There’s an upside,’ she said with a flick of her head. ‘So long as the press has a missing scientist to chase, we might be able to keep the Athabasca off the news.’”

Domidion’s PR strategy relies on the strategic dissemination of information. Their mistakes are only worth worrying about if they create bad press. Thus, Gabriel going missing is not necessarily a bad thing because it obscures the more inflammatory truth about the spill at the Athabasca River.

“‘The side effects were unacceptable.’ ‘To whom?’”

This question is at the heart of the two narratives around Domidion’s mistakes. The consequences of Domidion’s experiments are acceptable to Dorian and the rest of his high-powered employees because they don’t have to deal with them directly. People who are actually affected by the environmental destruction, like Sonny and Mara, are forced to accept the unacceptable, paying the toll for the sins of the powerful.

“You could start again. Mara had told herself that any number of times. You could move forward, find new opportunities, cultivate new relationships. If you wanted to.”

After The Ruin, which wipes out all of her connections, Mara knows that the best and only option is to move forward. Closing off to other connections will perpetuate the cycle of tragedy and prevent the community from healing. This approach to grief contrasts with Gabriel’s self-imposed isolation.

“Twelve thousand dollars, and he was still depressed. Maybe he hadn’t spent enough.”

This quote highlights how Dorian regulates his emotions through consumerism. He has no friends to confide in, nor does his relationship with his wife provide him with any meaningful human connection. His only outlets are purchasable items that he consumes in solitude.

“And in the end, whether we was tossed or whether we was the architects of our own ruin, the end’s the same.”

Crisp’s words suggest that the world is unfair and that it doesn’t matter whether misfortune is brought about by one’s own or others’ choices. It doesn’t matter whether Gabriel had a hand in the disaster that leveled Samaritan Bay. He is in the same situation as the survivors now, carrying the same load of grief.

“He liked being in bed with this woman. He liked holding her. He liked being alive.”

This moment marks Gabriel’s first human connection after losing his family and creating GreenSweep. Caring for Mara directly eases his suicidal ideation. It is not yet a healthy bond, but Gabriel’s change in attitude demonstrates the way relationship indispensably enriches the human experience.

“Nothing to get upset about. Nothing to mourn. Progress was a celebration of life.”

The narration describes Dorian’s sentiment as he walks through a familiar town and sees that it’s changed through urban development. Though the words occur in a relatively banal context, they evoke a big-picture irony for the character, who believes that all progress is good, even when that progress destroys something that was already in existence. His assertion that progress celebrates life is ironic since Domidion’s progress often comes with a high death toll.

“‘If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.’ ‘Exactly. Winston Churchill, right?’ ‘Joseph Goebbels.’”

Winter’s casual willingness to quote one of history’s well-known monsters highlights Domidion’s bald-faced disregard for ethics. The “big lie” is among Domidion’s propaganda techniques for spreading misinformation about the company’s actions. Winter does not continue the quote, which goes on to say that the lie can only be maintained so long as the public remains oblivious and unaffected. This omission shows a complete lack of acknowledgment of those affected by Domidion’s lies, like the residents of Samaritan Bay. 

“They knew where I was. They could have written. They could have phoned.”

Gabriel lost his relationship with his mother and sister while they were still alive. This shows how he struggles with connections even before the Kali Creek incident, and it compounds his grief after their deaths. The later revelation that they were missing him as he missed them emphasizes the importance of maintaining close relationships with loved ones rather than letting emotions like anger or pride get in the way.

“‘No good anchorage anywhere in this world.’ Crisp wrestled a large bottle of ketchup off the shelf. ‘All boats run against the tides.’”

On the surface, this quote is pessimistic, implying that no one can escape their past or better their situation. Looking beyond the surface, however, Crisp is outlining one of the guiding ideas of the narrative. As part of the eternal recurrence of all things, everyone is guided to the place where they belong at that moment.

“Athabasca River? Tragedy. Oil extraction? National priority. Safety protocols? The best in the industry. Environmental damage? Minimal. Legal liability? Unfortunate accident. It was all a waste of time. North American Norm didn’t give a damn about the environment.”

Domidion’s PR strategy relies on how most people have a short attention span and a shallow reserve of empathy for events that don’t affect them personally. Here, Dorian rattles off a meaningless list of buzzwords that he knows will appease a public already inclined toward placidity. King highlights public complacency as an enabling factor in the continued destruction of the Earth.

“The wealthy may buy anything they wish. Anything at all. But they may not buy their way out of dying. This is most frustrating, is it not? To have all that money and power, and no control over one’s mortality.”

Death is Dorian’s one point of vulnerability. The only time he appears truly disturbed is when he learns that he’s dying. He is finally faced with a painful truth that he can’t rewrite through propaganda or appease through money.

“I am Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

This quote from the Bhagavad Gita appears several times in The Back of the Turtle. Though the meaning of the quote in Bhagavad Gita is disputed, Gabriel here references Oppenheimer’s borrowing of the quote upon seeing the first nuclear bomb detonate. The common thread between Oppenheimer and Gabriel is that technological advances like nuclear bombs and bioweapons give humans a level of destructive power beyond individual comprehension. Having witnessed the consequences of his invention, Gabriel compares himself to Death.

“Who makes such a lethal concoction just because they can?”

Mara weighs in on the morality of innovation by condemning the very creation of products like GreenSweep. She argues that scientific curiosity does not justify making something that’s only purpose is destruction. This directly contrasts with Dorian’s view of Domidion’s creations.

“Life as a circle.”

This simple quote explains Gabriel’s return to Samaritan Bay as part of the theme of eternal recurrence. In The Back of the Turtle, time plays out in a circle in which beginnings and endings are inextricably linked. This duality allows Gabriel to play two roles, both as the destroyer of Samaritan Bay and the catalyst of its new start.

“‘Another possible sighting,’ said Winter. ‘Three weeks ago. Off the coast of Northern California.’ Dorian sat back and folded his hands across his stomach. ‘It’s at the bottom of the ocean.’”

Dorian is so confident in his ability to alter the truth that, when Winter informs him that the Anguis has once again been spotted, he states that he knows it’s at the bottom of the ocean. It doesn’t matter that this is factually untrue. It is yet another “big lie” that Dorian, perpetually shielded from consequences, will repeat until it is indistinguishable from the truth.

“The Athabasca was months in the public’s rearview mirror now, and, while there was the occasional outcry over new studies that documented the continuing damage to the Mackenzie and the Arctic, the newspapers had consigned such revelations to the back pages of the ‘Life and Arts’ section.”

Domidion’s approach of waiting out the news cycle works perfectly, and public outrage once again fades. The PR team’s understanding of how the media works allows the company to get away with murder for a second time. This event highlights the paramount importance of consuming media critically and seeking information from unbiased sources to avoid being manipulated into complacency.

“I don’t suppose we can just sink it.”

In light of what the undiluted GreenSweep did to Kali Creek, the larger quantity of the compound aboard the Anguis would, if released into the ocean, cause destruction on an even larger and potentially apocalyptic level. The fact that Dorian wants to stage the sinking of the Anguis shows an extreme shortsightedness and a total disconnection from the reality of his actions.