As Maddy begins to experience more curiosity about the world outside her sanitized home, the ocean functions as a representation of life outside in the real world. For Maddy, asking Olly about what it’s like to swim in the ocean is the easiest way for her to begin asking questions about the world outside and what it’s like to inhabit it. Maddy feels her own life open up as later, in Hawaii, she swims in the ocean and even jumps into it off of cliffs. Further, in much the same way as life isn’t all good and fun, the ocean isn’t simply a thing of wonder. Olly cautions Maddy to be wary and respectful of the ocean, as, like life itself, it may be inarguably beautiful and compelling—but it can also be deadly and dangerous.
The Ocean Quotes in Everything, Everything
“I’ve seen pictures and videos, but what’s it like to actually be in the water? Is it like taking a bath in a giant tub?”
“Sort of,” he says slowly, considering. “No, I take it back. Taking a bath is relaxing. Being in the ocean is scary. It’s wet and cold and salty and deadly.”
That’s not what I was expecting. “You hate the ocean?”
He’s grinning now, warming to his topic. “I don’t hate it. I respect it.” He holds up a single finger. “Respect. It’s Mother Nature at her finest—awesome, beautiful, impersonal, murderous. Think about it: All that water and you could still die of thirst. And the whole point of waves is to suck your feet from under you so that you drown faster. The ocean will swallow you whole and burp you out and not notice you were even there.”
“Be careful,” Olly calls out from somewhere behind me.
I’m not sure what that means in this context. Be careful because I may drown? Be careful because I may get sick? Be careful because once you become a part of the world it becomes a part of you, too?
Because there’s no denying it now. I’m in the world.
And, too, the world is in me.
The Ocean Symbol Timeline in Everything, Everything
