Rejection of the West
The titular character of this short story is part of a long line of Maugham protagonists who reject the materialism of western culture in search of something in the exotic east capable of filling the hole in their philosophical outlook. In his escape from mind-numbing middle class pursuit of nothingness to the less strictly ordered freedom of Tahiti, Edward Barnard is quite clearly a spiritual blood-brother to the Gaugin-inspired painter hero of The Moon and Sixpence. His questioning of the fundamental values of western civilization makes him also a prototype for Larry Durrell in The Razor’s Edge which was still two decades in the future for Maugham.
Anti-Imperialism
Considering that the story is neither about politics nor focused on national interests colliding, it may not seem as though imperialism could be anything but a most tangential theme. The truth, however, is that it is very much an exploration of imperialism that explores the motivation behind such intrusions by a powerful and advanced culture into the existence of a weaker and less advance indigenous people. Edward Barnard is only in Tahiti in the first place because the firm he works for in Chicago has sent him there to bring civilization to the poor ignorant backward savages (irony intended.) It is through the realization by Edward that paradise doesn’t require the caretaking of a civilization located far away and with values completely at odds in order to be perfectly civilized that the story becomes an anti-imperialist doctrine.
Going Native
“Going native” is a term intended to be applied negatively to describe one of the intended consequences of colonialism and imperialism. It is used to characterize those who have been too far away for too long from polite society and the dictates of decorum, manners, sophisticated and breeding. In other words, when some raised in England is sent to a position to work in India or Burma, for example, they begin to grow so enamored of the indigenous culture that they take to behavior that is no longer properly British but instead resembles the less cultured tastes of the native inhabitants. Obviously, this describes what happens to Edward, but in its final paragraph, the story finally fully delivers hard on the ironic twist it has been flirting with throughout.
The story’s closing imagery of the girl Edward willingly sacrificed back home becoming almost orgasmic as she dreams of Edward’s replacement finding success at the “Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company” and the “millions of motors they would turn out” and fancy mansion this would allow them to buy filled with antique furniture and even—for some reason of supreme importance—the “horn spectacles” her husband would wear all situate Isabel has having “gone native” in her own right. Indeed, the suggestion is that we all go a little native to one degree or another.
