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<title> Searching for identity </title>
In this essay I will discuss the themes that I have found in John Fowles's The Collector. I am going to look at it as they are made evident in Miranda's diary dated November 7th. The first theme, and the largest, is Miranda's searching for her own identity as well as Caliban's. The second theme is how money can change people. I will now explain how these themes occur in the chosen part of the text.

The characters in the novel are Miranda and Frederick, two young people, who are unsure of what kind of human being they are. Miranda is trying to place Frederick in some sort of category. She is also trying to make him aware of his own personality like when she made him read the novel The Catcher in the Rye: "M. I gave you that book to read because I thought you would feel identified with him. You're a Holden Caulfield. He doesn't fit anywhere and you don't." Frederick, who she also calls Caliban, answers: "I don't wonder, the way he goes on. He doesn't try to fit." The fact is that neither does he. After this Miranda compares him to the Old Man of the Sea, who poisoned the life for Sinbad and he finally kills the Old Man. Sinbad does that because he realise that it is his only way to get his freedom back. Miranda is also trying to kill her enemy, Caliban, but she does not succeed. 

Miranda and Caliban do not talk the same language; they try to have conversations but they are too far from each other. She says: "We argued-no, we don't argue, I say things and he tries to wriggle out of them." They are also absolute opposites. Miranda loves honesty, freedom and she is a generous person. She loves to do something and loves everything, which is not watching, copying and dead at heart. This last mentioned is what Caliban does and how he is; he is collecting butterflies, deprive them their freedom and he is a person that only takes without ever giving something back. Caliban is not interested in growing as a human being in contrast to Miranda. She writes: "A martyr. Imprisoned, unable to grow." She is like a butterfly; she dies if someone takes her freedom away from her.

The reason for Miranda calling Frederick for Caliban is that she has read The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Moreover are the names Miranda and Frederick also from The Tempest. This novel is also about emotionally contrasts, just like The Collector. Miranda is the daughter of a duke and Caliban is the son of a witch. She is a creature of perfect virtue and harmony and he is evil and represents the primitive sides in humans. Frederick, who is the King's son, meets Miranda and they fall in love with each other and Caliban is the one who is left alone. In The Collector Miranda is of the opinion that Frederick is exactly like Caliban in The Tempest. 

The differences between the two characters are many and they are both aware of that - especially Miranda. She belongs to the "good" people and Caliban to the "bad" people. She says: "And the few got to carry it all. The doctors and the teachers and the artists-not that they haven't their traitors, but what hope there is, is with them-with us. Because I'm one of them. I'm one of them. I feel it and I've tried to prove it." She is repeating to herself that she belongs to another kind of people than Caliban. Maybe she does that because this is how she feels now and she knows her feelings may change later in life and that she will become "One of the enemy." 

Furthermore Caliban belongs to what G.P., who is a friend to Miranda, calls the New People and this is the second theme. They are the new-rich people who think they can buy anything for money, for example class, love and dignity. This is what has happened to Caliban. He won a great deal of money and because of that he could leave his job and buy a house and carry through with the kidnapping of Miranda. He is buying her things and probably thinks that he can buy her love that way. However Caliban does not succeed and naturally Miranda begins to hate him for what he had done to her. So Caliban's money does not make him happy. To quote G.P's attitude in the novel: "He said, the New People are still the poor people. Theirs is the new form of poverty. The others hadn't any money and these haven't any souls." 

In conclusion I would like to say that The Collector is a great novel and I will recommend it to my friends. It shows that it is not easy to find out what your identity is like, even though it is not likely for people to end up in the same horrifying situation like Miranda. The fact that you cannot buy everything with money and above all, it does not make you happy is true in real life too, not only in the novel. What matters are freedom, health and true love.
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