"Servants" of the Map

While reading Servants of the Map I began to think about what exactly this title means to the story. 

• The obvious answer is that Max Vigne feels like a "servant" to the map. His job is simply to graph (mathematically/draw) the mountain peaks. This map will probably be published under someone else's name, given to wealthy consumers, and Max's efforts will go unaccredited.

I also thought about what it might mean for Clara and Max as couple

•  Also, pretty obviously, their relationship becomes secondary to the completion of the map. While Max is away it becomes strained and unrecognizable to him at times. to cope, he focuses, or wills to, only on his work completing the map.

Most importantly though, Max's entire personality changes near the end of the story. I asked myself whether or not he was still a servant to the map or the titles implications of the ending. 

• His botanical work still seems to "serve" or follow the map, but in a more controlled way. This time, Max will create the map himself through the "maps" of moss and plant locations. His self confidence to choose botanical work changes the the "servant" to the outcome of his research. His research depends on the map, but the map is created by himself. It's as if he broke out of "servitude" or his current job, became his own boss, and created different servants to put it in simple terms. 
• It brings all kinds of cheesy slogans about the job market to mind like "its a dog eat dog world", etc. Plus, when one person leaves a job for a better opportunity/failure, the next person in line moves up, someone new gets hired for the lowest job when everyone moves up. Work ethic has its own life cycle. 
• I think this is ironic considering Max is obsessed with Darwin and Plant life which rely on ecosystems and the "circle of life." He broke out of a work cycle/ecosystem and entered/created a new one for himself. Its interesting that the title deeply relates to work ethic and the cycle of life for its characters.