Importance of Water

Patrick, and eventually Martha, are scarred by the drowning death of a loved one. For most of his life, He has been grieving for his mother while she, in time, learns that her own grandmother “walked into the sea in the middle of February” (236). This secret, along with Patrick’s sorrow, binds them together and gives heavy meaning to the scene during which they jump in a river together in an act of unbridled freedom.