Jaws Page 177 - 311

Summary- The chapter begins with Vaughan calling for a town meeting in order to discuss opening the beaches for the Fourth of July. Brody firmly disapproves with reopening the beaches. Daisy Wickers, the girl he assumed that Hooper was with, is revealed to be a lesbian which leads to Brody questioning who was Hooper was with yesterday. Brody questions where Hooper was at the meeting  and Hooper gets caught lying and the heated conversation is broken up by the start of the meeting. Hooper calculates the chance of the shark still being at Amity really low since he hasn't been seen and tracked with his advance equipment. Vaughan and his friends are all at the meeting and it becomes very one sided. Meadows researches into why Vaughan so desperately wants the beaches open and finds out that he owes money to a famous mobster. The beaches will be open for the Fourth of July is the decision that the meeting brought up. Brody feels bad for Vaughan, a previous friend. Meanwhile, the town has been suffering from the lack of tourists. Brody wanted Hooper gone, he contradicted his caution and was suspected of being involved with his wife. That and his motivation to protect Amity forces him to try his hardest to get rid of the shark. Fourth of July weekend is soon here and the beaches are packed with tourist hoping to see the shark. No one is brave enough to go out too far into the water because of the previous weeks events. A boy decides to go out into the ocean suddenly because of a dare and a bribe of ten dollars. The shark's fin is spotted and the shark goes to attack the boy. Luckily the boy is pulled out of the water by the patrolling boats and the beaches are once again closed. This prompts Brody to call in a famous local fisherman, Quint. He asks for his help and his price is four hundred dollars a day. Hooper, Quint, and Brody go out in Quint's large boat to attempt to catch the shark. Quint's fishing skills are shown almost immediately as he catches a rather large blue shark. He throws it back in the water and watches the surrounding sharks eat their brother up in amusement. Hooper, a fish lover, disapproves of this which leads to tension. Quint has caught a Great White before, a large 20 foot White as seen in one of his pictures on the boat. Brody and Hooper are interested in knowing how he is so good. Quint responds that fish are stupid and all people have to do is out smart them. Brody and Hooper get into an argument over saving lives and wealth. The first day of fishing ends with group tension. On the second day, Brody, Quint, and Hooper are using harpoons to attempt to catch the shark. The harpoon line gets severed easily and Quint figures that it is due to the action of the shark. The line was made of solid steel and it was cut clean by the sharp teeth of the Great White. The Great White then proceeds to headbutt the side of the boat with its torpedo shaped head. The shark then disappeared into the depths of the ocean. Hooper then exclaims excitedly that the shark was enormous. He compares it to a prehistoric creature, a close relative of the shark, the megaladon. He then goes on to question the mysteries of the ocean. He wonders how big do the sharks actually grow in the deepest trenches of the ocean. This gets Quint annoyed since he believes that all fish are simplistic. He is a type of person who believes in only what he sees. Vaughan visits Ellen because he fears that his life here in Amity is done for. Ellen then ponders the thought of a life with Vaughan and recognizes the boredom there would be, and recognizes how good her life with Brody is. Hooper, on day three, wants to put a shark cage onto the boat. Brody and Quint are reluctant to let Hooper put the cage on the boat because they are concerned for his safety. They eventually let Hooper bring the cage on because of his persistence. Brody then once again questions Hooper about that night he was missing and Hooper says that he was with Daisy. Brody finds this hard to believe since Daisy is a lesbian and Hooper fabricates a story that Daisy wanted to try something new. He even goes as far as saying to Brody that he could check with Daisy. They then resume fishing for the shark. They bait the shark with a porpoise only to have the shark outsmart them by cutting the knot on the other side of the boat. Hooper goes down in the shark cage in hopes for pictures but the shark easily breaks through the cage and eats Hooper. Meadows reports the hard work and effort that Brody is putting into his job as the truth and as his friend. Ellen does not want her husband to go when she just realized her valuable life. Brody decides not to check with Daisy Wickers because of fear. On the final day, the shark confronts Quint head on. The shark sinks the boat and Quint kills him with a blade to his head. Quint gets caught in a rope and sinks to the bottom of the sea with his greatest rival, that shark. The novel end s with Brody swimming to shore with the Quint and the Great White sinking into the darkness.

Quote- "That sure does seem to be a smart fish"(Benchley 279).

Reaction- The novel was one that I greatly enjoyed. The fast and suspenseful timing of events throughout the story kept me interested from the beginning to the very end. The only part I wasn't sure I liked was the ending. It was a clear cliffhanger and it is left to the reader to imagine what happens after the shark is killed. The quote above goes hand and hand with the quote in the previous post. At the beginning the shark is described as primitive and not very smart. This is further supported by Quint's beliefs. By the end of the novel , the reader is wondering if this was really true. The quote above shows that Brody obviously believes that the shark was smart and the shark's actions supported that. This leaves the reader with an internal debate on whether the predators of the oceans can outsmart a human. This question is the true fear of the novel. This uncertainty fills any person out in the ocean with terror because they never know how intelligent the hunters may be.