In the novel, "Fly Away Peter," by David Malouf, time has passed, and Imogen Harcourt is sitting on the beach and looking out to sea. She has heard of Jim's death and is "torn" by the "waste" of Jim's life, reflecting on the "all those days that had been gathered up to nothing but his senseless and brutal extinction." The question of what the meaning of life is enters her mind and she concludes with, "a life wasn't for anything. It simply was." .
But now, she sees something amazing in the distance - a surfer who is briefly riding "on the crest of the wave," and then falling "down fast into the darkening hollow." This surfers cycle would repeat itself, and Imogen finds herself fascinated by this; realizing the inevitability of change: "Everything changed. The past would not hold and could not be held." She goes grieving for Jim, but interested by the image of the surfer and "turned and looked again." .
In this chapter, David Malouf sums up all his most profound ideas in the novel. The final scene is full of symbolism - the beach and the sea with the regular eternal rhythm of waves. This and the surfer riding the waves symbolize the regular eternal cycle of life. The surfer rides the crest of the wave for a moment then falls, so do all creatures in a way. They are born; they flourish for a moment and then die. As the surfer continues his process so does the process of life. Malouf makes clear that Jim's death was wasted because it was cut short and the question of the meaning of life arises in this chapter. The answer is simple: it is for living. .
Analysis of Language.
"She took up the camera and set the strap to her shoulder. There was grove. She turned her back to the sea and began climbing the heavy slope, where her boots sank and filled and the grains rolled away softly behind. At the top, among the pigweed that held the dunes together, she turned, and the youth was still there, his arms extended, riding.
