Interpretation
A major theme of the novel is whether doing what is necessary to meet a long-term goal is more important than an individual's life. Rivière wants to show that airmail is more efficient than steamers or trains and deliberately puts his pilots at risk every day to prove this. He believes that only through risking many individual lives will airmail ultimately catch on commercially. The planes of this era did not have the flight instruments needed to fly safely at night, and many pilots who went on night flights ended up owing their lives to sheer luck.
Rivière believes that it is critical that Fabien take off on time so as not to endanger the punctuality of the following flight. When he realizes that he is largely responsible for Fabien's death, he observes: "We don't ask to be eternal. What we ask is not to see acts and objects abruptly lose their meaning. The void surrounding us then suddenly yawns on every side." Fabien, for his part, does not fully understand or agree with Rivière's position, but he does not turn against him either. Although certain that he is going to die on the flight, he keeps his suffering to himself and takes off anyway.
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