Omar answers “So...what do y'all think was the deal with...”

Jon W. asked this question about The Passenger (The Passenger #1):

So...what do y'all think was the deal with the missing passenger in the plane? The book seems ultimately unconcerned with the truth and why the government is after Western (which imo is a thematic feature, not a plot failing), but I'm curious what other readers might speculate.

Omar Sabry There is a high chance that the "passenger" (and the fallen plane) might be a metaphor, but I also guess that the title "passenger" might be a red her…moreThere is a high chance that the "passenger" (and the fallen plane) might be a metaphor, but I also guess that the title "passenger" might be a red herring. The title does not refer to the missing passenger, but directly to Western or maybe even Alice/Alicia. McCarthy misdirects the readers, but then somewhere in the middle of chapter V he says:

"In the spring of the year birds began to arrive on the beach from across the gulf. Weary passerines. Vireos. Kingbirds and grosbeaks. Too exhausted to move. You could pick them up out of the sand and hold them trembling in your palm. Their small hearts beating and their eyes shuttering. He walked the beach with his flashlight the whole of the night to fend away predators and toward the dawn he slept with them in the sand. That none disturb these passengers."

You don't end a paragraph with the title of your book if this shit's not important. Here, Bobby melts our hearts because he struggles with a non-sense fight to defend innocent "passengers". The destination of these birds is set far away and now they are on a beach just for a break. This is an epiphany, Western already tried in his past to protect a "passenger", a very special person who was meant for more and probably laid in this life just for a little break.

If this book was about a "missing passenger", it would have focused on Bobby. This story cannot focus on anything that is not Alice/Alicia, so I really think that the passenger might be her.(less)

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