The Playground Of The Gods

The Playground of The Gods

Cathy Spellman’s, The Playground of The Gods is an exuberant novel which

deals with murder in a remote tropical paradise but can further be read as an

illustration of man’s ignorance and invasion of nature.

“Do it big, or stay in bed.”( Larry Kelly). These are words that Thoros

Gagarian lives by. He is one of the wealthiest men in the world and when

picking his private paradise, only one place on earth could serve his needs and

fantasies. This place is Mora Utu-The playground of the Gods-a green jewel in

the placid blue expanse of the South Pacific, the most luxurious and seductive

private preserve anywhere on the planet. Once his prized-possession has been

found, Thoros immediately ships the island natives to a different island and

brings in his construction crews to hurriedly build his paradise in order to

have it ready for a celebratory visit by 12 of his close friends.

In the introduction to the story, Cathy Spellman makes clear the notion

that the protagonist, Thoros Gagarian views himself as an indestructible god.

Her descriptions of his haste purchase of his Island paradise shows a man for

whom their is no boundaries. His arrogance is further displayed in his building

of his compound.

Spellman’s voice of reason comes from a spiritual Mexican couple who are

Thoros’s servants. They not only warn but predict of many consequences to the

ignorance to which nature is being shown. ?Nature will not permit alteration on

such a scale.?(Emilio, 114).

However, these warnings are ignored by the men who do not appreciate a

bizarre servant couple speaking of things which money can’t buy and power can’t

control. This is when Spellman’s utilization of irony comes into the picture.

A member of the party catches a tropical fever, yet he can’t be cured because

the tree which possesses the antidote was destroyed in the creation of the

facility. This is followed by a serendipitous chain of events which is climaxed

when an immense typhoon hits the island and takes two of its visitors as its

sacrifices.

“In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments, there are

consequences.”(Ingersoll). This statement indicates the underlying theme of the

novel. Man’s ignorance regarding nature is a fatuous fault, for which he will

have to face the consequences. Whether it be in the near future, or impending

on him till the moment where he realizes that his ignorance has not come without

its price.