Close to the Water Edge

Close to the Water's Edge

Section B

In our modern lives we have to form our own identity. We need to make a lot of choices concerning who we are and how we would like our lives to develop. But of course our identity is greatly affected by our childhood. The choices made by our parents and their parents are probably the most important choices ever made for us. The few people who rise in the social hierarchy is a proof of this.

The short story is about the importance of our foundations. The grandmother did not dare to swim in the ocean, even though she was a rather competent swimmer, because she did not know when the water would become too deep for her. Likewise, she did not leave her husband even thought she wanted to because she thought that there was no other way than to remain a pig farmer's wife for the rest of her life. She did not think that she had other options. She was scared of not having a foundation.

One the other hand the mother was not scared of leaving her husband. She left him and married a millionaire instead. But this was certainly not in order to get rid of the security a good foundation will give you. She married the millionaire in order to get a much stronger base. In this way she would no longer have to care about money, she became able to send her son to the best schools and to live a composed life etc.

The son, who does not approve of his mother's choice, is trying to break free of her and create his own foundation. But he fails. He is even close to drowning in the attempt.

The experiment costs him his clothes. This makes him think of the first species that crawled ashore. They had no foundation onto which they could tide their identity. The young man must feel sort of the same way. He has some quite mixed up roots with his grandparents being poor pig farmers and his mother being married to a millionaire.

So the main character is trying to create his own identity, but fails. He cannot liberate himself from his roots just like his mother cannot liberate herself from her roots. She was born the daughter of a farmer, and that will always be part of her roots.

The most important part of the short story is that the young man does not drown. He is actually capable of rescuing himself from of a deadly situation. He manages to get back to the beach. But does he succeed in separating himself apart from the choices made by his mother? In the end it is revealed that all he ever wanted was a normal life. This gives us a clue that he has not achieved this normal life which he is seeking and probably never will, because of his mother's choice which includes a rich stepfather and the life in luxury which he is used to live.

The millionaire seems to have issues towards homosexuals. He does not want them in the army ("Says if he's elected president, he's gonna let queers into military." (ll 88-89) "What kind of a defence would that be?" (l 93)) and makes it clear to the young man and his mother that he does certainly not approve of this conduct of life. The boy on the other hand could be a homosexual, he does not bring any girls home and he is certain that he will never get married. This I mention in order to make it clear that this is a quite important topic for homosexuals. You cannot decide whether you want to be gay or not, but you can certainly decide whether or not you want anybody to know. If he did not life whit this stepfather he would probably have the courage to tell his mother, but because of her choice on living with the millionaire he does not think he will be accepted as the one he really is. Just like his grandmother did not think that she would not have chance of a decent life without her husband, who was actually ready to leave her alone on the coast.

So there are not anybody in the short story (forgetting the millionaire of who we do not know much) who can actually be the way