At the beginning of the story, Robie is a vulnerable young woman pretending at toughness and independence. By the end of the novel, she has transformed herself, thanks to her ordeal on the raft. Robie’s character transformation follows the arc of the Hero’s Journey, the archetypal story form identified by Joseph Campbell.

In stories that hew to arc of the Hero’s Journey, the protagonist is forced to leave behind his or her normal world in order to take on new responsibilities that they are reluctant to accept, and ultimately to face their greatest fears in pursuit of the object of their quest. In Robie’s case, the object of her quest is sheer survival, and the normal world she leaves behind is the world of human civilization. She, like any protagonist within the Hero’s Journey storyline, initially resists rising to the challenges and responsibilities of her new situation, but eventually, through navigating an initial batch of tests and challenges, finds the strength within herself to take on the frightening new world.

For Robie, the ultimate ordeal is the moment when she faces the fact that Max has been dead for some time and is forced to confront her fear of isolation and embrace the fact that she is the only one she can count on to save her life.