On Skinny Dip In Response to Topic B
by Robert Bray

            Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen is a humorous crime novel, but it is obvious that in the sub-text of the novel, there is an ethical issue about which the author is very concerned, and that issue is the environment. The ethical issue of the environment plays an important role in portraying the characters in the novel, and it leaves the reader with a better awareness of the environmental situation in the Florida Everglades.

            In Skinny Dip, those characters who are opposed to the environment are portrayed as villains, such as Chaz Perrone, a biologist who ironically despises the environment. Chaz works for a company that secretly is polluting the waters of the Florida Everglades, and it is Chaz’s job to test the phosphorus levels of the waters, and report them at levels which are legal, so as not to send the company into bankruptcy. Not only is Chaz portrayed as a corrupt biologist for his hatred of the environment, but also as a pervert and a murderer.

            As far as the structure of the book goes, the environmental issue provides a better understanding for the characters, in that it portrays those who oppose it as villains, and those who are supportive of it as the “good-guys”. But the theme in the book revolves around the ethical issue of the environment, and that theme is intended to have an effect on the reader. The novel provides a story that has fictional characters, but characters which deal with true aspects of the environmental situation in Florida. The environmental issue in the novel plays an important role in educating the reader on the severity of the situation of the Florida Everglades.

            I have always been concerned about the environment in general, but after reading Skinny Dip, I was more aware of the situation in the Florida Everglades, and this concern was deepened. There are plenty of Chaz-Perrone-type-people out there that are harming the environment, and I hope that anyone who reads this book will become aware of that, and do what they can to improve the situation.