Art

Those who struggle to connect with others can find a way to communicate and express themselves through art. The author explores this theme through the character of Eliza.

When the reader meets Eliza, she is immersed in the Monstrous Sea world that she has created. It is a fully formed world, not something that she is just beginning to dabble in creatively. This world is how she is able to express herself when she does not know how to do so with real people. Eliza recognizes the limits of her own empathy toward others when acknowledges that it is easier for her to empathize with characters than real people. (167).

When Eliza reads Wallace’s prose, she recognizes that Wallace is able to impart the character motivations through prose better than she understands it in her drawings. It is possible that Eliza understands the motivations on a...