Hurricane Child

The scarred, brown hill on Water Island symbolizes a loss of innocence for Caroline. When the fireworks exploded over Water Island instead of over the sea almost seven years prior during Carnival, a house at the top of the hill caught fire, and the man living there died. This story reinforces the theme that Caroline is no longer a child. She tells this story to Kalinda, who also once witnessed death, and they both agree that they are no longer children.

The photograph that Caroline’s father holds in his hand in Chapter 12 symbolizes new beginnings: “He is holding a photo of Bernadette and a letter with large cursive handwriting from the little girl,” and her father tells her that although he was afraid to introduce them when she visited, “Bernadette will now come to Water Island every summer” (205) so Caroline can get to know her half-sister. This makes Caroline happy, and the character of her father has overcome his own fears and opened up communication with Caroline.

Caroline’s father’s blue boat is a motif that reinforces the theme of wanting to grow up while still feeling like a child: “I am no longer the little girl […] that he would take out on his boat so we could get lost in the sea and the stars” (48). In the first chapter, the boat represents a way off of Water Island and a way to find her mother. By the end of the novel, the boat that her father hasn’t touched in a year and a half carries Caroline and her father back home, where they are both ready to start a new chapter in their lives: “We step onto it, and he rows me across the clear blue water, the way he used to when I was a child. I think I might still be a child now, after all” (194). The blue boat also symbolizes returning home as Caroline’s father overcomes his inability to use it.

The spirits are motifs within the themes of sight and invisibility as well as questioning self-worth and seeking validation. There are multiple ghosts and ghost stories throughout the novel; from Caroline fearing that the glowing lights of jellyfish are the ghosts of slaves, to the little boy who haunts Kalinda’s house on Barbados, there are spirits of all ages and types. Caroline learns a lot about the spirit world, especially when she meets Kalinda.

When Caroline recalls the story her mother tells about her birth, it was as if the “hurricane just tore [her] from the spirit world and spat [her] out into this one instead” (32)—and it is the ghost of the dead friend of the old women down the road who whispers under her breath that it’s a curse to be born during a hurricane. The ghosts are a way for Caroline and Kalinda to project their own ideas about existence and work through their fears about their identity and family connections. When Caroline feels isolated and lonely, the woman in black appears. When Kalinda is questioning ideas such as infinite timelines and parallel universes, the woman in a nightgown appears. As Caroline grapples with the fact that she has a half-sister, she sees the spirits of little girls.

There are several spectral appearances to Caroline that are terrifying, such as the girl who runs towards Caroline and bursts into moths. The image of a ghost is used for inanimate objects as well: Caroline explores her father’s bedroom where her mother’s dresses still hang in the closet “like little ghosts of her missing body, and her shoes are still lined up beneath them. Seeing her clothes and shoes sends a jolt through me” (61). Ghosts represent the thoughts, feelings, and ideas that haunt Caroline. Kalinda and Caroline are haunted by fear—the fear that their mothers don’t love them, the fear of saying goodbye, of speaking their truths. The ghosts symbolize the difficulties the girls must overcome.