The Ocean

The ocean is the most consistent pleasurable and constant force in Jacaranda’s life. As a child, she uses and trusts the sea, but as she gets older, she does not always rely on it like she should. Unlike her sister, Jacaranda loses touch with the ocean, which also makes her lose touch with what gives her inherent pleasure. The ocean is also one of the things that Sonia misses most about California when she moves to New York.

The Barge

The barge is not a literal boat, but rather a figurative one, that Jacaranda sees the people who call themselves the “dear friends,” and she chooses this metaphor to describe this group because a barge glides smoothly along a body of water without being disturbed and also moves away from the riff-raff left on land. The barge is the comfortable, yet unreal, existence that...