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In his psychoanalytical study of "The Adventures of Tintin", the literary critic Jean-Marie Apostolidès expressed the view that "The Red Sea Sharks" reflected a world in which traditional values have been degraded and everything – including human life – has become a commodity. He added that Rastapopoulos becomes "the embodiment of the global market" in this story, tying together all of the other characters and therefore replacing Tintin as the figure "at the centre of the universe". Apostolidès opined that "The Red Sea Sharks" amplifies "the theme of the general equivalence of everything" that is present in the series, serving as "a kind of retrospective" by introducing old characters and establishing new relationships between them. He believed that the theme of the mirage pervaded the story, appearing repeatedly in such forms as Abdullah's cuckoo clock which concealed a water squirter and the pseudonyms employed by the various characters throughout the narrative. The literary critic Tom McCarthy stated that "The Red Sea Sharks" exhibited a number of themes that recurred throughout "The Adventures of Tintin". He believed that a scene in which one of Bab El Ehr's men spies on the Emir in his mountain hideaway reflected a wider theme of eavesdropping that features throughout the series. McCarthy also highlighted Tintin's actions in returning Abdullah to Khemed, expressing the view that it is part of a wider running theme throughout the series in which the hero takes an abandoned children to their home; other instances included Tintin's discovery of an adoptive family for the orphan Chang Chong-Chen in "The Blue Lotus" and the delivery of the lost gypsy child Miarka to her family in "The Castafiore Emerald".