Turtle Summary and Analysis

One early morning, Lillian took a small boat out off the pier to fish for flounders. At one point she got in the water and suddenly a strong tide came and began to take her out to sea. She didn't panic and was eventually able to return to the pier. It made her recall the conversation she had with Hammet four days after the turtle died. She told Hammet he was a survivor like the turtle but wasn't sure about herself. Holding onto the piling, she realized she was recalling a conversation with a man who had been dead five years about a turtle that had been dead for twenty-six years.

In 1940, Lillian bought a house in Westchester County with royalties from "The Little Foxes" even though she wouldn't have enough to buy food for the rest of the week. She...