ABSTRACT
Jaws is set in a small oceanside town that depends for its survival on the summer tourist business. The town suffers a series of vicious shark attacks, and it is inferred that the perpetrator is a single shark. Quint’s description of the Indianapolis disaster provides a crucial link to the other wartime subtext, the Second World War. Given the importance of this description for our analysis, it is worth quoting at length: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. Interactions with the Jaws shark go through stages that chart the general process of getting to know cultural Others, which is why you don’t have to be a war veteran to appreciate this movie. The public has often learned about anthropology, without necessarily using that term, through one particular source: National Geographic.
