40 pages • 1 hour read
Douglas PrestonThe Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The White City/The Lost City of the Monkey God/Ciudad Blanca
The White City, the Lost City of the Monkey God, and Ciudad Blanca all refer to the legend of a lost city in Mosquitia, but they also symbolize ignorance, superstition, and false beliefs. Preston leans into the White City legend in the first part of the book, only to gradually replace this false concept with facts derived from archaeological evidence. While the White City is a misleading myth that developed into superstition, Preston notes that it is ultimately based on truth that was altered and misinterpreted over time. Even ignorant ideas can have a basis in truth—yet that truth can only be rediscovered through systematic scientific research, like what the team conducts later in the narrative.
The White City also acts as a reoccurring symbol of obsession, or passion, depending on one’s perspective. Various figures in the book, including Elkins, Heye, and even Preston, are obsessively focused on finding the Lost City and solving its mysteries. By building up the mystery and intrigue of the White City early in the book, Preston attempts to foster curiosity within the reader, compelling them to read on to find answers.
The Jungle
The jungle is a recurring motif throughout the narrative. It is portrayed almost as an entity, at once beautiful and pristine but also lethal and malicious, hiding secrets. Preston frequently juxtaposes these two facets of the jungle. The jungle’s danger and malice build suspense, intrigue, and excitement, but its majesty and purity emphasize the importance of preserving nature as well as archaeological sites. While Preston jumps back and forth between these two aspects of the jungle, he emphasizes its danger more in the first half of the book and its beauty more in the second half, as he makes a case for the importance of preserving the natural environment and guarding archaeological sites.
Disease
The motif of disease is not emphasized throughout the narrative, but it is the primary focus of the last third of the book. As Preston continues to dismantle the Lost City legend, he uses disease to explain the curse of the Lost City. European-introduced diseases, including smallpox, measles, and influenza, are argued to have wiped out as much as 90% of the Mosquitia population. Even though the Spanish never colonized Mosquitia, its people traded widely with other cultures throughout Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, making the spread of these diseases inevitable. After Mosquitia’s cities were abandoned due to this pandemic, the sudden collapse was gradually reinterpreted as a divine curse from the gods.
Preston also relates the outbreak of leishmaniasis among the team to the “curse of the monkey god,” though he does so facetiously. Still, he utilizes this outbreak to warn First World societies not to ignore the suffering of Third World people due to disease. The team’s experiences with leishmaniasis provide a sobering example of the devastating effect disease will likely have on our own civilization in the future.
