Close to the Water’s Edge
The short story Close to the Water’s Edge shows us the result of a boy’s unstable childhood. The boy must find his own identity and search for a normal way of life. His own parents lacked the abilities of upbringing him, so he’s never had a role model which he could look up to. The young man at the age of nineteen is the main character of the short story. He’s got many opportunities in life. He gets top grades at Harvard University, and his stepfather is a millionaire. This, however, is not what makes him happy. This is not what he wants with his life. In the first paragraph of the story, we are told how he dislikes his mothers’ fashionable furniture. Compared to his mother he enjoys the natural things in life, like the beach, where as his mother likes her fashionable house and the diamonds around her wrist. He just wants to be a normal person with a normal life. Thus one of the major themes in the short story has been introduced.
The mother and the millionaire behave very strange towards the young man, especially when it comes to his sexuality. His mother treats him as if he is a pet or a toy. This is seen the way she keeps kissing him. ‘“Happy birthday, son,” the mother says and kisses him on the mouth.’ We are told that the stepfather has the ‘Whitest teeth money can buy.’ Just like his teeth the millionaire is a fake. He does not have happiness in his life. This the main character also thinks. In the last sentence of the short story he compares his mother’s diamonds, with fake stars. Once again we are shown he focuses on things that are natural and not material and superficial. The extremely pink cake that they serve is also a sign as if they think he is a little girl. Indirectly, the millionaire keeps alluding that the main character is homosexual. A good example of this is seen on page 4. ‘”They must be all around you like flies,” he says, “a young man like you. Why, when I was your age I had a different woman every weekend.”’ Also when the pink cake arrives, the millionaire is grinning which could be interpreted as if he is mocking the young man. We can’t be sure if the main character is homosexual or not. There is nothing that makes it positive that he is, but a lot of things point towards it. He has never brought a girl down nor had a male role model.
The sea is a symbol of freedom. When he goes to ‘wash the evening off him’ he uses the seas to be free and get clean. He wants to free himself from their way of life. It is not the kind of life he wants. He might also want to get away from their judgement. They treat him as if he is feminine or homosexual even though he has never given them any sign that he is. He wants to have his own identity and not just live up to the mothers and millionaires expectations. The sea also symbolises his lack of confidence towards breaking free from the social prison he feels like he is in. Another interpretation could be that he is insecure about admitting to being homosexual. The way he has to fight the waves shows us this. And just like he has to fight the waves to stay alive, he would also have to fight his mother and the millionaire if he wants a better life. ‘He imagines the first species that crawled out of the sea, the amount of courage it took to sustain life on land.’ His grandmother was afraid to jump into the Atlantic because it was unknown. This symbolises how she didn’t dare leave her husband because she was afraid of the unheard of and unknown. Our main character however chooses to jump into the water and decides that he doesn’t want to live the life he is living.
The short story describes how hard it a can be coming from a bad childhood. But it also tells how to deal with the problems that are set before you. The most important thing is to place natural values above materialistic values.