When Challenger shows Ned the pterodactyl bone, he describes the fear that the Cucama had of something that lay in the direction of what will prove later to be the pterodactyl swamp: "Curupuri is the spirit of the woods, something terrible, something malevolent, something to be avoided” (33). The idea of Curupuri symbolizes the fear of the unknown in the South American plateau—the idea of the self versus other.

Ned relays the majority of The Lost World through letters and newspaper articles. The epistolary form of the letters gives the story additional tension. Because readers know the letters were being written as events unfolded, they can’t be sure that Ned survives the adventure. Ned’s journalistic style allows Doyle to write with more description and floridity than one might include in a simple travel log. Ned wants his account to be an exciting, irresistible narrative that will both inform and entertain. In a story filled with trophies and artifacts, the letters are one more piece of evidence about their story’s truth.

Professor Challenger is one of the novel’s major characters, but he is also a symbol. His name describes him aptly: he is an iconoclast who challenges nearly everything and everyone he encounters.