Water as Motif

Over the course of Things We Lost to the Water, the author uses recurring images of water to explore his primary characters' relationships with fear and trauma. The author establishes water as a motif in the novel's opening chapter, "August 1979." As soon as Hương hears the hurricane alarm, she is convinced that "New Orleans is at war" (3). As she rushes through the house in frantic search of her sons, the narrator says, "The air is like water, it's like running through water. Through an ocean. She feels the wetness on her legs and the water rising" (4). The reader soon learns in the chapters following that Hương's terror manifests in this manner, because of her traumatic venture from Vietnam to the United States during the time of the Vietnam War. Her treacherous trip across the ocean with her sons, and without her husband...