Summary Of Under Water By Anne Fadiman

The structure of a novel enables it to embody, integrate and communicate its content by revealing its role in the creation and perception of it. A complex structure such as that of Robert Drewe’s work The Drowner, published in 1996, refers to the interrelation or arrangement of parts in a complex entity1. Drewe’s novel is a multi-faceted epic love story presenting a fable of European ambitions in an alien landscape, and a magnificently sustained metaphor of water as the life and death force2. The main concerns of the novel include concerns about love, life, death and human frailty. These concerns are explored through the complex structure of the novel. That is, through its symbolic title, prologues, and division into sections. The

Tim Winton’s short story, ‘The Water Was Dark and it Went Forever Down’, depicts a nameless, adolescent girl who is battling the voices inside her head along with the powerful punishments at the hands of her inebriated mother. The key concerns of life and death are portrayed through the girl’s viewpoint as she compares her life with her sad, depressed mother. Anonymous as she is, the girl constantly makes an attempt to escape the outbursts, that come as a result to her mother’s drinking, by submerging herself into the water. An extended metaphor is used when expressing the girl as a machine and her will to continue surviving in her sombre life.

Does your past have a big influence to who you are and your children? Ruth McBride has been hiding her past from her children her whole life; her past shaped her and James’ life despite all the struggles he had with his identity. In The Color of Water by James McBride, his character is shaped by the influence that Ruth, his mother, gives by being secretive about her past. James struggles with his identity from when he was a child to an adult, which over time became a major issue he struggles to deal with. Ruth’s secrets about her past influence James’ confusion with himself and motivates him to find out who he is in order to gain closure with himself.

For this essay, I am going to be discussing the short story “Swimming” found on the New Yorker, and written by T. Cooper. I have chosen this story for many reasons, and among those reasons is the personal sadness I felt when I first read the story, almost as if the universe was placing a certain theme in my life, that only the main character could possibly understand. I am talking about running, the god given instinct felt by all men, inherent in the nature of fear, and brought out in all who feel sadness in its full intensity. Though in my short life I can not compare the sadness I have felt with that of losing a child at my own hand, but if I had been placed in that situation, if fate had tempted my soul with such a sequence of events, I would like to think I could find the strength to endure and the courage to not abandon all I had previously known. Yet I am able to reconcile the themes of grief, the mode of recovery, and the longing to escape such a terrible tale. I think in this piece, as I will discuss in later parts, the author was able to put into words a transformation we rarely get to observe in closeness, the kind of transformation that turns a kind man into a “just man” the kind of death that turns this world from a beautiful and happy place into a world that is closing in on our main character, that is forcing him to surface temporarily and gasp for air, much like he does when he finds peace in the water, wading breath after air, after sea. I firmly believe that

In the consuming darkness her body began to float upwards. Her mouth was open, letting in small discreet amounts of air, trying to buy as much time as she could before she ran out. Her fragile body was suspended in an awkward posture with her torso jutted forward and her limbs moving like a clockwork doll. Amongst the relentless whipping of the undulating waves she could hear her sister’s scream. She felt herself rise upwards as she continued to flail. She had to survive. She had to somehow reach the surface of the water and survive. She didn’t want to die. Not now. She was running out of air, no longer able to fight the urge to breathe. She looked up to see the sunlight, but she saw none. Then it dawned on her. She wouldn’t make it. She let

“A Secret Lost in the Water”is a short story by Roch Carrier. It is a story about how young millennials are forgetting their traditional way of life and are moving in the modern era . The story takes place in a small Village where everyone knows one another. “A Secret Lost in the Water” is a story about a father tries to teach his son an important skill of how to find water with an elder branch, but the son does not values it and loses the skill. The main theme in “A Secret Lost in the Water” by Roch Carrier, is the lack of the interest of the new generation, the valuable knowledge which is a great asset is going to be lost best displayed by, the father, the son and generation gap.

Evocative and visceral, Irving Layton’s “The Swimmer” follows the impassioned swim of a man as a metaphor for man’s relation to nature. The poem begins with the titular swimmer breaking away from his vessel and into the sea. Layton elaborates upon the swimmer’s journey underwater, as a mystical intercourse between man and Earth. In the final stanza, the man is expelled by the sea and returned to land. In “The Swimmer”, through the description of an incestuous relationship communicated through erotic imagery, Layton expounds on the theme of the connected, yet ultimately detached, relationship between man and nature.

Adrienne Rich uses many poetic resources in her poem "Diving into the Wreck." In this poem a diver goes on a trip to investigate a shipwreck in the socially accepted schema. Rich shifts the role of the hero and the strategy for success in her second schema. In the second schema the hero goes on a journey where she discovers her true identity, both female and male.

“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.

James McBride’s memoir The Color of Water, compares two troubled, young lives in which they are victims of racial prejudices and alienation. In this novel, Ruth McBride, the mother of the author, encounters the most alienation of all characters mentioned because of her religion and family decisions and social circumstances. Ruth endured several struggles that impacted her perspective on her religion, Judaism, and the society where she feels unwelcome. Ruth’s relationship with Dennis, a black man, was an impediment to her keeping close contact with her family. Coming from a Jewish heritage, “They said kaddish and sat shiva. That’s how Orthodox Jews mourn their dead” (McBride 2). Realizing that starting a new life would be better than tending

In The Color of Water by James McBride he faces plenty of obstacles in his life. One that I think was very important during his childhood is in chapter 14 where makes a few bad choices after his stepfather, Hunter Jordan, dies. Since James didn't get to know his biological father, Hunter was the closest he ever came to having one. He makes it clear that his family loved Hunter and when he died they were all devastated but none as much as their mother. It's safe to say she wasn't the same and that can be seen when McBride says "She sent us off to school and tried to maintain her crazy house as usual, ranting about this and that, but the fire was gone" (McBride, 137). I think his mother's behavior no doubt had some effect on the way he acted.

Through this insightful book, we see Mark Drolsbaugh?s struggles to survive underwater, and we eventually emerge from the sea and breathe fresh air with him as he finds the wisdom, courage, and skills necessary to treasure both land and sea.

Once submerged into the swamp, her human body and “pale bones” contradict the obscure, “peerless” and “pathless” environment. The contrast between light and dark imagery such as “pale bones” and “black earth soup” emphasize her sense of loss and displacement within natural world. Through words relating to the human anatomy, she attempts to surface the swamp’s pulling control over her. The initial incompatibility between her and the swamp continue as she fights for “foothold, fingerhold” out of her immediate situation and back to the shore, before she entered. In the midst of wrestling for mental control over her situation, repeating “s” sounds reveal her sinking position and how she succumbs to her environment. Sibilants such as “slick,” “silent,” “sink,” and “slack,” force her into the mud. Once absorbed, he previously “burred” perspective clashes with the soft feeling in the mud. The speaker's description of the swamp when in it, contradicts the earlier assumptions made at a physical distance. The previously “wet, thick” mud is actually “not so wet as much as painted.” Rather than submissive to her environment, she is passive by entirely accepting her surprised reaction. The switch to “I feel” is another pause, as she contemplates her surrounding as she experiences a raw moment rather than standing on the edge of it.

In the novel We Live in Water by Jess Walter, there are many stories about how people live in Spokane, Washington. One interesting aspect the reoccurs in multiple stories is the relationship between father and son. In the short story Anything Helps, Walter introduces the character Bit, a father whose addiction led him to losing his son to the state. He tries to see him but when he does he doesn’t even remember how much time has passed since he’d seen him last. Although Bit tries to be a good father his addictions to alcohol and drugs keeps him from doing so. Although Bit tries to be a good father to his son, Nate, his alcohol and drug problems tends to stop him from doing so.

In 1996, the prosperous people in Ecuador received a total income of 50% from the nation, while the impoverished Ecuadorians received only 5%. In the book The Queen of Water, by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango, Virginia is a teenage girl living in the 1980s in Ecuador. It depicts the troubles Virginia has gone through to become a great student at a mestizo school and how she landed a job at one of the most well-known hotels. This explains all the hardships she faces and how she overcomes it all. The Queen of Water is based on a real girl, but she still clarifies the social class, the discrimination, and the women’s rights problems that people face everyday in the Ecuadorian society.