Kon Tiki Chapter 1

The novel begins with the author and narrator, Thor Heyerdahl, on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He finds himself wondering why he is in this position. Then he takes the audience through a series of flashbacks showing how he came to be on the raft.

Heyerdahl is a zoologist that was once stationed on a small in the Pacific called Marquesas. Here was where he first heard of "the great Polynesian chief-god Tiki, son of the sun." He gave up his job to star studying the history of primitive peoples and the mysteries of the South seas. He then goes through a series of theories of who the Polynesian people are and where did they come from. He then finds similarites in the Polynesian and the natives of the Inca Empire. With more research he came upon an Incan god who was also sometimes called Kon-Tiki and was driven out westward into the Pacific. This fact about Kon-Tiki begins Heyerdahls theory and later putting him on the raft in the Pacific.