Dark Water Rising

“I knew Papa had never had a chance at much formal schooling, but I’d seen him study every book and paper we brought into the house. There wasn’t much he didn’t know, and little he’d tolerate when it came to incorrect language or bad manners.”

Papa’s characterization as a stern man who values education is developed here. Hale depicts a man who had little opportunity for an education but who values it so much that he self-educates, insists on a “correct” manner of speaking, and aspires for his own sons to go to college and establish stable, successful careers. This suggests some of the class pressures and pressures of social mobility placed upon Seth and the family in this work.

“I stared at them, a wrathy heat already building inside me. They were planning my life again, probably lining up delivery work like Ben was doing just so I could help pay for those blasted college classes I never wanted in the first place. I thought about all the fishing days this would cost me, and my anger swelled. Well, it wouldn’t do them any good. I might work the job, but I’d made up my mind about a few things. I’d be planning my own future from now on, and college wasn’t figured into any part of it.”

Seth’s frustration at his circumstances is clear in this passage. As a young man on the cusp of adulthood, Seth wants to be in charge of his own life. He resents his parents’ interference and their insistence that he go to college. Early in the novel, his plans are secret, and he worries about his father’s reaction. This quote does much to develop Seth’s character.

“I stood there, gripping Mama’s china while Papa and Uncle Nate continued their talk. I’d always been expected to help before and didn’t see why this time should be any different. Besides, Ezra was old, and he’d already made countless trips up those stairs.”

This is one of Seth’s earliest exposures to the way racism functions. He has trouble understanding why the situation is somehow different now that Ezra is there—in the past he has always helped do the hard work. He even notices that Ezra is older and could probably use the help. This shows that Seth occupies a space outside of the system of racial discrimination that the adults in his family take for granted.

“During the first night, I lingered at the open windows while the boys slept, listening to the faint crash of surf against the not-so-distant beach, filling my head with the enormity and sheer power of what lay just out of sight. It made me feel like an ant in a house of sand, with the overfull bowl of the sea lapping at my door.”

This quote foreshadows the storm and builds the novel’s motif of The Power of Nature. Seth’s perception of the world around him allows him to recognize the ocean not only as a beautiful natural sight but also as a thing of immense power and a possible source of danger. This quote points to some of the eco-crisis themes present in the novel.

“‘That’s Josiah,’ Mr. Farrell told me. ‘Now, I allow I wasn’t too excited about working a colored boy, but he appears to be a dang good carpenter and minds what he’s told. If he gives you trouble, Seth, let me know.’

‘Yessir,’ I said, though I couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble Mr. Farrell might expect […] I nodded my greeting, and he nodded back, barely meeting my eyes before he dropped his gaze back to the ground.”

Seth’s introduction to Josiah furthers his observation of the structures of racial discrimination in the city. Mr. Farrell is openly dismissive of Josiah and operates under the assumption that Josiah may cause “trouble” for Seth, a white person. Once again, Seth does not really understand the cause for concern, as he only sees a boy about his age.

“He listened, then tossed me a look I couldn’t quite decipher, something kin to puzzlement, or perhaps surprise. It left me thinking that maybe no one had ever told him just how good a carpenter he was. After several more failed attempts at talking, we walked in silence.”

Seth’s attempts to befriend Josiah are met with wariness. Unlike Seth, Josiah understands their respective “places” in a racist, discriminatory society and knows that he must maintain a level of quiet respect and formality with the other boy. Seth continues to learn about race relations in Galveston at the time, though he resists their restrictions.

“I liked Zach right off, and I think Josiah did, too […] I followed on his heels all morning, doing whatever he asked, but always watching. There was something almost mystifying in the way he rested saw and nail against lumber—just for a second—like he was listening, like the wood had whispered something to him I couldn’t quite hear. After our noon meal I began to notice a connection between the three of us, an invisible rhythm that bound us one to the other. We danced to music only we could hear. One set of hands. A single purpose.”

Seth’s introduction to Zach puts in his mind the idea of a “true carpenter”—a person whose life’s work it must be to build. Unlike doctoring or lawyering, Seth considers this to be work a “man” can be “proud of.” He admires Zach very much and, in feeling a connection to him, begins to build the confidence and self-assurance that will allow him to assert his plans to his father and to see himself as an adult.

“The tide was high and the water rough, yet despite the peculiar haze in the sky and the fresh northerly wind, the gulf still swelled and rolled onto the beach like it had since the day I’d arrived. As the day wore on, we all seemed to move slower. The north breeze had done nothing to lessen the heat, as I’d hoped. In fact, it grew even sultrier, sitting heavy on my brow and in my chest, weighing me down till every breath was an effort.”

This passage foreshadows the storm, showing how the weather is changing and depicting the water of the gulf as “rough.” Though they don’t yet know the extent of what the storm will bring, the people of Galveston are affected by its early signs. This again signals the almost otherworldly power of natural disasters.

“About fifteen years ago, a little town not far from here called Indianola was completely washed away, scattered all across the prairie. But everyone says it couldn’t happen again, and certainly not here in Galveston. We get storms and overflows all the time, and they never last long or do much damage. It’s kind of exciting, really, watching the waves and seeing the water rise up in the streets and yards.”

In this passage, the reader sees the hubris of people and their tendency to underestimate the power of nature. Ella Rose tells Seth that it could never happen, “certainly not here in Galveston,” showing how confident the people of the city are that they’ve built something strong and lasting. Like Quote 9, this passage foreshadows the storm’s catastrophic destruction and supports the motif of the power of nature.

“The staggering truth of what was happening twisted so tight inside me I could hardly breathe. This was far more than the simple storm with overflows that everyone had expected. I stared toward the flooded beach and wondered if there were some who still watched, paralyzed, unable to tear themselves from the horror of seeing their great bathhouses ripped apart by the sea.”

It is at this point that Seth begins to understand the storm’s true power. This passage also supports the motif of the power of nature; earlier descriptions of the city’s massive structures made them sound imposing and impressive. That they are able to be “ripped apart” by the sea shows how powerful the storm is and how little protection the people actually have from it. Compared with previous descriptions of the town’s prosperity, this moment is poignant.

“Time seemed suspended, circling our struggle, watching for weakness. I glanced at Josiah, truly sorry I’d gotten him into this. My legs ached from fighting the current, my whole body felt bruised and battered, and I knew it had to be the same for him. All around us people fell, struck down by flying slate, brick, or shutters. Others drowned, knocked off their feet and carried under by the broken roofs, galleries, or privies that swept down the street faster than a man could run. Water swirled around my hips, leaving me powerless to offer aid and weak with the thought that, at any moment, either one of us could disappear beneath the swift brown river and be gone.”

Hale uses sensory language to help the reader relate to the difficult physical struggle of traveling through the hurricane. Hale also describes a great deal of death, highlighting the trauma that the boys experience as well as their inability to help and their feelings of powerlessness. Ironically, the journey the boys undergo is unnecessary, as Seth’s family has already left the rental house and traveled to Uncle Nate’s, where Seth and Josiah just left.

“The Vedder house had been tightly shuttered, but through a broken slat, I could see all the way to the swollen gulf. It was a staggering sight—home after home looking like tiny islands surrounded by angry sea, like they’d been built in the middle of an ocean. The ones closest to the gulf were gone, splintered and swept away or slammed against others, waiting for the next wave.”

This description uses powerful imagery to help the reader picture what Seth is seeing. Hale uses personification to describe the sea as “angry” and describes the water as “sweeping away” or “slamming” houses into each other. The passage gives the reader a sense of the overwhelming flooding and the sense of violence in the storm.

“I rested my hand on Matt’s baseball bulging in my pocket, and Josiah and I leaned against the soaked and crumbling plaster. My thoughts drifted from little Tom to Thirty-fifth street, from the faces of my family to Ella Rose, but they always ended up in the alley behind Butcher Miller’s house, reaching for the woman and her child.”

This passage reveals the trauma that Seth experienced watching the woman and her child be swept away by the waves. It is easy for him to imagine them as his own family and his empathy and compassion make him deeply affected by the experience.

“Maybe none of us would end up with any more than the clothes on our backs, but what tore at my heart the most was the misery our lives would become if we had no family left, either.”

Seth is powerfully impacted by the loss he sees around him—not only the dead but the grief and sorrow of the survivors. In this passage, he hints at the resiliency of the human spirit, suggesting that they could overcome any material loss but holding separate the loss of family. For many, this would be true. Ella Rose, for example, loses all but two of her cousins. Aunt Julia loses a husband and son. Seth, separated from his family, can only imagine the worst in the wake of the death and destruction he sees around him.

“I finally turned to Josiah, who sat with his elbows on his knees, his gritty hands around his head, and I was gratefully lost for a moment in the sight of white sand glistening in his black hair. It didn’t seem possible that such simple beauty could exist side by side with the mind-numbing sorrow around us.”

Seth’s ability to find beauty in these dark moments is indicative of his perspective on the world. Seth is a very perceptive person who thinks deeply about the world around him. This passage shows that he is able to view the world as very complex and to see beauty and horror as existing at the same time. He also views Josiah as a part of this beauty, further establishing himself as operating outside of the social systems of racist oppression.

“Death lay everywhere. I feared that hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives might’ve been taken by the storm. Flies swarmed, and buzzards circled high over horses and cows already swelling in the heat, over men and women half-buried in mud or tangled in barbed wire and splintered timber. Many lay near naked, rocking back and forth in the surf, their clothing shredded, ripped from their bodies by all the debris. Some still grasped the hands of small children, but I knew look better than to look into their eyes.”

Hale’s vivid description of the death and destruction after the storm helps the reader to imagine themselves there. These graphic descriptions highlight the true disaster conditions the characters experience and illustrate how overwhelming the sight of thousands of bodies would be. This quote again highlights the impact of eco-crises on human societies, even built-up ones.

“Stories crowded the streets, and through all these tales and others, I saw not a trace of emotion. Eyes stared, glazed and without light. Hearts appeared numb. The panic and loss that had gripped us all seemed to have been replaced with a bewildered calm.”

The numbness shown by survivors in this passage is a sign of the profound trauma they have all been through. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the magnitude of what has been lost that they dissociate or detach from the situation. Though this may suggest at first glance that the people Seth talks to are not affected by what’s happened, in truth it means that everyone is so affected that they must create emotional distance in order to cope.

“I wished I could protect [Matt] from seeing the wagons loaded with dead, the dazed, half-naked people looking for loved ones, but it was impossible. I feared what it must be doing to him. As much as I’d seen, my stomach still knotted at the sight of each bloated body; my heart still ached when I looked into all those desperate, searching faces. Matt never spoke a word about it the whole way, but I understood why. There just weren’t words big enough to speak of such things.”

This passage continues to develop the theme of trauma in the text and further develops Seth’s character as a person who cares deeply for the feelings and well-being of others. Despite his own trauma, Seth’s focus here is on Matt and his desire to spare Matt from seeing the death and destruction. When he notes that there aren’t “words big enough” to talk about the trauma, he is revealing how profound the trauma and despair are.

“I couldn’t get Ezra off my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking of the shadow I’d glimpsed in his eyes when I’d told him about Josiah. It was easy to see he was worried, but I’d seen something else, too, something I suspected might come from never being master of your own fate. After straining at Papa’s leash for so long, that sort of thing wasn’t hard for me to recognize, but unlike Ezra and Josiah, I knew my life would change.”

Seth reflects on the racist oppression that Josiah and Ezra face. He recognizes the forced powerlessness of their situation and compares it to his own. This shows Seth’s compassion and empathy. It also interrogates the premise of such a system, asserting Ezra and Josiah’s humanity and highlighting the unfairness of the system.

“Not a single soul dared enter the water, and though we all longed for something other than rationed canned foods, no one would eat from the abundant supply of fish, either. As long as the dead still washed ashore, the gulf would remain an unclean enemy.”

By describing the gulf as an “enemy,” Hale continues to personify it and highlights the new respect that the people of Galveston have for the ocean’s power. What was once a source of joy and pride for the residents is now a danger and a villain that stole people and prosperity from them.

“I was thankful, but sometimes I wished we could just leave, get Aunt Julia and Ella Rose away from the massive rubble, the smoke-filled skies, and the aching loss that bled the life right out of them. Mr. Hodges said many had done just that, begging rides on the Juno, the Lawrence—anything that would float. People gathered at the docks with nothing more than the tattered garments on their backs, and the mainland took them in, fed and clothed them, and opened their homes hotels, and boardinghouses to them. But I knew Papa would never leave the island. Even I had come to realize I didn’t want to go. The storm that ravaged Galveston had left behind much more than wreckage and mud and death. It had left a challenge.”

This passage highlights the resilience of those who stayed on the island to rebuild. Though many left, others chose to stay. By framing the rebuilding as a “challenge,” Hale hints at the toughness and resiliency of those who stayed, suggesting that, rather than being destroyed by the storm, they were in some ways strengthened by it.

“Either way, Papa had helped me learn something about myself, about the fear that always seemed to steep inside me, and about how quickly it could strangle who I was if I let it.”

A significant factor in Seth’s coming-of-age is his newfound ability to be confident in himself despite his father’s opinion, whether it be approving or disapproving. Here, Seth recognizes that his fear of his father’s judgment holds him back from being his true, best self. Seth resolves not to let the fear “strangle” him any longer.

“Telephones rang again, electric lights shone from every window, and outside, Galveston’s streets were finally clean. The city gathered around Thanksgiving tables, and moved on to trim Christmas trees and sing carols, but every eye reflected pain. The deepest wounds, the ones unseen, still festered. I think the holidays were hardest of all on Aunt Julia, though she tried to hide it. […] Ella Rose seemed to have finally made peace with her loss, and Andy and Will, like most young boys, were easily distracted from theirs. Yet, in quiet moments, I saw the sorrow and wondered how long our hearts would yearn for healing.”

As the months pass and life somewhat returns to normal in Galveston, the holidays give the people a chance to return to the comfort of old rituals and celebrations. Even as the people move forward, however, the trauma and grief lingers inside of them. In some ways, the novel suggests that emotions must be confronted if they are to be processed and overcome—for example, though Ella Rose is able to release her emotions to Seth in Chapter 25 and thus make peace with her loss, Aunt Julia never speaks of hers and continues to be affected by it. When Seth wonders about how long they’ll “yearn for healing,” he is suggesting that healing cannot come as a result of simply carrying on as though things are “normal.”