For instances, he conducts a detailed and descriptive cultural-historical study of the huge Moai rock statues on Easter Island. Heyerdahl employs the device of anthropological description in supporting his argument. It is with such high scholastic stakes that Heyerdahl begins his adventure, not to mention the real high stakes of life and death that awaited the sailors en route. If Heyerdahl were to succeed in completing the journey, it would pose a big challenge to conventional anthropology on Polynesia. The voyage undertaken by Heyerdahl and team is to simulate the eastward arrival theory. The central concern of the book is to find out whether indigenous Polynesians arrived on the islands from the West or the East.
Heyerdahl and his crew’s simple-sounding task was then to simulate the navigational experience of the Peruvian tribes who were said to have taken a journey on the same Pacific route several centuries ago. The main point of the work is that the native inhabitants of Polynesian islands, contrary to being thought of as of Asiatic origin, are actually from the Americas. He utilizes varied literary devices of narration, description and comparison to illustrate the central thesis.
In other words, Heyerdahl brings all ingenuity and creativity to bear on his writing, just as they were amply evident in the actual voyage. The stupendous success of the book is as much owing to the author’s story-telling skills as it is about the thrills inherent in the adventure. The book in question chronicles his jaw-dropping journey from Peru to the Polynesian islands on the hand-made balsa wood raft with only natural accessories at disposal. Adventure sailor Thor Heyerdahl’s audacious attempt to voyage across the Pacific using a rudimentary raft is a great human achievement.
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