Fourth of July

The Fourth of July weekend is the single most critical period in Amity's annual economic cycle, the make-or-break moment that determines whether the town's merchants, landlords, and service workers can survive the coming winter. As Mayor Larry Vaughan tells Brody, "The Fourth of July isn't far off, and that's the make-or-break weekend. We'd be cutting our own throats." The stakes are existential: a good summer means prosperity enough to carry the thousand year-round residents through the lean months; a bad one doubles the relief rolls and threatens the town's very existence. The Fourth represents the peak of the season, the moment when the summer population swells to nearly ten thousand and when the rental market must be secured. Vaughan, whose real estate agency is the most successful in town, has already seen two big leases cancel after the shark attacks, and he still has twenty houses unrented for August. The pressure on Brody to open the beaches for the holiday is immense, and it comes not only from Vaughan but from the entire Board of Selectmen, who argue that the town is dying and that every day the beaches stay closed drives another nail into Amity's coffin.

The Political Battle Over the Holiday

Brody is summoned to a noon meeting of the Board of Selectmen on the Thursday before the Fourth of July weekend. The selectmen present—Tony Catsoulis, Ned Thatcher, Paul Conover, and Rare Lopez—are all longtime allies of Vaughan, and the mayor has stacked the meeting against Brody. Vaughan argues that the town cannot afford another lost weekend: "It's already too late to hope for a good summer, but we may be able to salvage something—for August, at least—if the Fourth is good." Brody resists, pointing out that opening the beaches without knowing the shark's whereabouts is a gamble with human lives. He reminds Vaughan of the previous deaths—Christine Watkins, Alexander Kintner, Morris Cater—and asks who will take the blame if someone else is killed. Vaughan responds by threatening Brody's job, citing the selectmen's power to remove the police chief. Brody offers to resign rather than capitulate, but the meeting is interrupted by a phone call from Harry Meadows, who reveals that Vaughan is deeply in debt to Tino Russo, a known Mafia figure, and that Vaughan's real estate company, Caskata Estates, has been buying up properties at depressed prices. Vaughan, overhearing the call, screams at Meadows and then, in a private conversation with Brody, admits the truth: he owes nearly a million dollars and is being forced to open the beaches to save himself from ruin. Brody agrees to open the beaches, but on his own terms: he will post officers on the sand, have Matt Hooper patrol in a boat, and make sure every swimmer knows the danger.

The Near-Fatal Incident on the Holiday

On Saturday, the first day of the Fourth of July weekend, Brody stations himself on a dune overlooking the Scotch Road beach, dressed in a polo shirt and bathing suit, with binoculars, a walkie-talkie, and a sandwich. The beach is not crowded, and no one has yet gone swimming. A television news crew from WNBC arrives, hoping to film someone entering the water. A teenage boy named Jim Prescott, goaded by a friend's ten-dollar bet, decides to swim. Brody tries to stop him but the boy ignores him. As Prescott swims out, Hooper, patrolling in the Flicka, spots a shadow in the water and warns Brody. Brody runs into the surf and pulls the boy to safety just as the shark's dorsal fin appears behind him. The fin drops beneath the surface, and the fish moves into the deep. The incident is captured on camera by the news crew, and Brody is interviewed afterward, stating that the beaches are closed again and that Amity is "in big trouble." The near-miss confirms Brody's worst fears and vindicates his earlier insistence on keeping the beaches closed, but it also devastates the town's hopes for a salvageable summer. The holiday weekend, which was supposed to be the turning point, becomes instead the moment when the community's economic crisis deepens irreversibly.

Consequences and Aftermath

The Fourth of July incident marks the end of any pretense that the shark problem can be managed through public relations or political pressure. Brody, now fully committed to killing the fish, arranges to charter the boat of a local fisherman named Quint, who demands four hundred dollars a day in cash. The hunt that follows consumes the next several days and leads to the deaths of Hooper and Quint, and the sinking of the Orca. Brody survives, swimming to shore after watching the shark drag Quint into the depths. The Fourth of July weekend thus becomes the hinge point of the novel: before it, there is still hope that the town can recover; after it, there is only the grim necessity of confronting the shark directly, whatever the cost. The holiday's symbolic promise of renewal and celebration is inverted into a narrative of loss, obsession, and the violent end of the hunt.