Chomp

Primarily working as an animal wrangler, Mickey Cray is also Wahoo’s eccentric, unpredictable, but loving father. What he lacks in traditional parenting skills, he makes up for in unconditional devotion. Apart from his animals, nothing is more important to Mickey than his family. In fact, he is far more trusting of the animal kingdom than he is of human beings. For example, he allows Wahoo full access to alligators, pythons, and monkeys, but he does everything in his power to protect his son and others from the violent threat of Jared in the novel’s climax. He also notably prefers the company of his menagerie to that of Badger and Stark. Mickey is a loner, and in another context, he might be considered a negligent father, but he also holds to a strict moral code. He cannot abide the abuse of innocent animals or children, and this conviction is aptly demonstrated when he declares his willingness to give up a hefty paycheck when Badger threatens to harm Alice, his prize alligator. Later, when Jared shoots at a heron for no reason, Mickey objects despite the fact that his captor is armed and volatile. He even puts his life on the line to defend Tuna, a girl he barely knows. To Mickey, the fact that Tuna is a stranger is secondary to his need to defend the defenseless. Carl Hiaasen thus expresses an implicit admiration for Mickey, a man who may never win Father of the Year, but whose love for his family supersedes every shortcoming.

Badger is the inept, egotistical star of Expedition Survival! and stands as an amalgam of every existing Hollywood cliché. Everything about him is a carefully cultivated façade: his safari wardrobe, his tan, and even his accent. He is more a pampered celebrity than a survivalist, and his demands grow more outrageous over time. Additionally, his delirious rampage through the Everglades proves that his ability to distinguish reality from fantasy is highly suspect. While he has thus far survived encounters with tame, wrangled animals, he imagines himself strong and skilled enough to face the untamed world of the Everglades. Badger is so cocooned by his celebrity that he begins to believe his own propaganda; for example, his near-death experience with Alice makes him crave more danger, not less. Ironically, however, this overt bravery is belied when he becomes horrified at the thought that a thunderstorm will maroon him in the Everglades, far from the comforts of his luxury hotel. He is therefore in love with the idea of danger, as long as a jacuzzi awaits him at the end of the day.

While Badger has little to recommend him as a human being, he is not beyond redemption. His final act of heroism saves the lives of Mickey, Wahoo, and Tuna, even if his courage is only the result of temporary delirium. By the end, however, Hiaasen suggests that Badger is a changed man. He is humble before Tuna, and he accepts being fired without the tantrum and victimhood that his previous behavior might suggest. He even demonstrates gratitude for what he has gained and refrains from expressing bitterness over what he has lost. While Hollywood stars may not be Hiaasen’s favorite people, the author does eventually flesh out Badger’s character, giving him a hint of virtue that allows him to shed a few stereotypical Hollywood attributes.

Wahoo’s classmate, Tuna, is another embodiment of youthful resilience. While Wahoo’s strength comes from his unconventional upbringing, Tuna’s comes from her will to survive her father’s constant abuse. When she first enters the narrative, she has a black eye, and even at such a young age, she exhibits an internalized shame about the injury and lies about it. However, Mickey sees through the lie and immediately seeks to rectify the situation by confronting her abuser. Unlike many adult victims, however, she doesn’t defend her father or run back to him; instead, she jumps at the chance to follow Wahoo and Mickey into the Everglades. Once there, she displays a vast knowledge of taxonomy, identifying every species she sees by its biological classification. When Wahoo marvels at her memory, she confesses that learning species classifications distracts her from her abusive home life.

Tuna is an avowed Expedition Survival! fan and is eager to meet its star, Derek Badger. This is her first brush with celebrity, but she is soon disenchanted when Derek does not measure up to his television image. She is especially disappointed to discover that a stuntman performs Badger’s signature entrance of parachuting into the wild from a helicopter. Tuna is honest and forthright and is not burdened by social niceties. While Wahoo can be awkward in her presence, she seems utterly composed. The only time she exhibits fear is when her father finds her. She displays a tough exterior, but in reality, she is a scared young teenager in need of adult help.

As the producer of Expedition Survival! and Badger’s caretaker, Stark is an experienced and sometimes jaded businesswoman. Her job is to do whatever it takes to get the next episode on the air, including pampering her star and keeping him safe from his own ineptitude. Her devotion to Badger involves more than a little self-interest, for if he loses his job, so does she. However, despite the constant babysitting and damage control that is necessary to smooth over Badger’s missteps and maintain his public image,—Stark enjoys the adventurous aspects of her job: the travel, the exotic locations, and the spontaneity. While most of her time is spent keeping the show on track, Hiaasen humanizes her when she has a brief moment of connection with Wahoo and loans him her satellite phone to call his mother in China. Stark, accustomed to the obstinate and problematic Mickey, sees Wahoo’s situation for what it is and recognizes that this boy, who is normally forced to act as an adult, suddenly needs his mother. The scene represents a rare moment of empathy for a woman whose day consists of tough negotiations and clever fabrications. That moment serves to recast Stark as a more sympathetic character, and her kind nature is ultimately rewarded when she is allowed to keep her job despite Derek Badger’s dismissal from the show.

As the only truly malevolent character in a cast of oddballs, Jared represents the dark side of Florida’s eccentric weirdness. An unemployed man with an alcohol addiction and a raging temper, Jared often takes his anger out on his daughter by violently abusing her and rationalizing his behavior as punishment for her perceived lack of respect. Ironically, his tyranny prevents him from seeing the obvious: that he has never earned her respect, only her fear. His actions thus mirror the standard cycle of abuse: violence followed by apology and contrition, followed by rising tension that leads to yet another violent incident. The cycle repeats itself ad infinitum until Tuna finally realizes that he will never change. His single-minded pursuit of her into the Everglades provides the final crisis that brings the plot to its climactic conclusion. He sees Tuna as property, and when she runs away, he cannot make the connection between her fleeing and his abuse. It is simply a matter of retrieving his property, and he feels entitled to shoot anyone who stands in his way. There is also an aspect of socioeconomic deprivation to Jared’s character. He is poor, his house has been foreclosed on, and he and his family live in a beat-up RV in a Walmart parking lot. Whether or not he is a victim of economic circumstances is never made clear, but at some point, Jared makes the choice to wallow in his misfortune and blame everyone else for his problems.