While this
chapter doesn't come right out and point out the whirligig, when the man gets off the boat and
walks down the pier, he stops to look at the "wooden marching band." This is the
whirligig that Brent made. It is true that this chapter is the least loosely connected, and it
is hard to see the whirligig connection at first. But the marching band whirligig is the same
one that Brent made and left on the beach in Miami.
The significance of this
chapter is how this particular whirligig touched the man's life. He is looking for peace, and
lives a crazy life with lot of noise and people and never a moment of quietness and rest. He
doesn't have much privacy and has had some tough times. He wishes he were like a particular sea
bird, one whom he imagines just quietly flies over the calm ocean, alone, without a loud,
annoying, stressful family. However, when he takes a boat ride looking for this bird, he
realizes the bird flies in a flock and is always with its loud, raucous family. The man gets off
the boat and looks at the marching band whirligig that Brent built, and realizes basically that
it takes a band to make good music. It takes more than one person to make a family. And just as
the birds need their flock and a marching band needs many members, a human needs his family too.
Even though things are sometimes crazy and loud and people argue, in the end they "make
good music" together. He realizes the value of his family and finds another way to find
peace in his life, which is to enjoy the peaceful night while he works his new
job.
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