As they make their way through the cave as it “twists and turns” until they reach “a huge, half-moon-shaped ampitheater, with an elevated slab altar and all three hundred sixty degrees of wall covered in a kaleidoscopic swirl of images.” It is as if S. and the other fugitives are seeing all of this civilization’s history at once. It is powerful and heartbreaking at the same time. An undiscovered gem in the heart of a mountain and those who find it cannot appreciate it. This ancient civilization worked to document their past and it will lay forgotten. This is much like S. in the novel. He has a past but it’s forgotten and he never finds out what it was.

https://flic.kr/p/8DSTJT

As “the faces take on distinctive features” in the cave, Eric comments on the “emergence of identity.” This prompts Jen to question the whole concept of individuality in America. “When you’re growing up” you’re led to believe that one day you’ll “get to be who you want to be,” but that simply isn’t the case. Eric reminds her that “it’s not that you can’t be who you want to be” it’s often more difficult to be who you want to be. Individuality is difficult to achieve when society is telling you to blend in and be generic. Jen will have to accept that in order to embrace what she has with Eric and Ship of Theseus.