Around 5000 B.C.E. the Greek historian, Herodotus, had proclaimed Egypt " the gift of the Nile" because all the floods that were happening there had turned Egypt into a productive agricultural region which made the Egyptians wealthy and powerful. This would support that water brings power. The author John Knowles in the novel A Separate Peace uses the representation of water to show water brings power into people's lives.

Wanting to take a shower, Finny thought of washing away his infirmity. Gene told Finny that he was going to enlist with Brinker for the war; Finny was depressed, so he got his soap dish to take a shower. Finny "hobbled over to the dresser and took up his soap dish. `I am first in the shower,' he said...Phineas was shocked at the idea of my leaving. In some way he needed me'"(99-100). Finny was scared...