The Floating Opera

Todd controls the narrative, and he uses this authority to promote his life philosophy: Nothing in life has intrinsic value. He takes up various hobbies, from piano to tennis to boats, but nothing becomes his life’s purpose. Even when Todd picks up boatmaking again and takes it more seriously, he states it doesn’t matter how well he does anything: “ […] I did everything correctly right from the beginning. Not that I believe, as many people do, that there is some intrinsic ethical value in doing things properly rather than improperly” (69). Todd’s curiosity leads to him trying new things, but the more he tries, the less meaning he finds in anything. His character arc becomes one of lost illusion, journeying out into the world only for it to be disappointing.

Todd grows up to be an effective lawyer, giving him another chance to find a passion and take value in his work, but his occupation doesn’t fulfill him either. Thinking on the law, he finds it shallow:

But of most things about which people hold some sort of opinion, I have none at all, except by implication. What I mean is this: the law, for example, prescribes certain things that shall not be done, or certain ways in which things shall not be done, but of most specific human acts it has nothing to say one way or the other.