Themes In The Changi Camp

Though King and Nicholson gain great power and respect in their camps because of their traits, they suffer for it near the end of their captivity. In the Changi camp, the Americans finally come to rescue the prisoners. The soldiers are no longer prisoners and the Japanese are forced to protect them. Without the presence of danger and the fact that they are close to being evacuated, prisoners start to turn on King. They become tired of his selfish, manipulative, greedy ways. Max is the first to turn on King. After Kings tells Max to go get him some coffee, Max spontaneously becomes livid. He throws the coffee out the window and says, “Get your own goddamn coffee.”17 When King threatens to hurt him, Max tells him that he’ll have him court-martialled, …show more content…
Either one would land him in jail or worse. So King starts with massive power and respect, but ends alone, broke, and hated. While this is a terrible fate to befall this character, it is still a better fate that Nicholson, who doesn’t make it out of Siam alive. After completing the bridge, prisoners begin to be evacuated. However, the British put out a special ops team to destroy the bridge. They have planted charges under the bridge and are waiting for the train to pass over it to blow it up. Nicholson, seeing the charges, is alarmed and immediately goes to tell the camp commander Saito. He forgets the bridge will help the enemy and isn’t just a monument of what the British can do. This is where his pride becomes a hindrance to his survival. With the plan jeopardized, one of the three soldiers, Joyce, goes down to confront Nicholson and Saito. Thinking that Nicholson is on his side, Joyce kills Saito and tries to explain to Nicholson the plan. Nicholson, blinded by his pride and afraid that the bridge will be destroyed, attacks Joyce. He attacks Joyce and alerts other guards of his presence. Nicholson subdues Joyce and another soldier, Shears, tries to salvage the