Although the Curren brothers come from a long line of abalone fishermen and have been raised on an island, they have a complicated attitude toward the water, which parallels their tumultuous relationship with Dad, an abusive alcoholic. Although water is the source of the family’s livelihood and is an outlet of escape for Joe and Miles (who love to surf), it is also a powerful, mysterious force which the boys believe took the life of their beloved Uncle Nick. As a result, Miles is afraid to dive in deep water and Harry refuses to set foot in the ocean altogether. Similarly, Dad’s role as a father figure is to provide and nurture, yet he is also a violent force that continually threatens the family’s safety. Whereas, for Miles, his father starts out as a normal, loving parent and the ocean begins as a lighthearted outlet of escape that is “just for fun,” Dad and the water slowly become tandem sinister forces that ultimately claim the most important figure in Mile’s life—his little brother Harry. Just as Miles is forced to protect Harry from Dad’s cruelty and neglect, he also desperately tries to save his little brother from the ocean’s bitterly cold grasp after Dad throws him overboard. Although Harry drowns to death, this harrowing experience does not scare Miles and Joe away from the water, and they are still determined to surf and spend time on Joe’s boat after losing Harry. While the ocean is an ongoing representation of the boys’ fraught relationship with Dad, it also comes to reflects Miles and Joe’s inner strength as the brothers sail away from Bruny Island in Joe’s boat. Ultimately, Miles and Joe are able to find freedom in the very thing that caused so much destruction, and they refuse to succumb to the blame, fear, and abuse that plagued their father.
Water Quotes in Past the Shallows
Water that was always there. Always everywhere. The sound and the smell and the cold waves making Harry different. And it wasn’t just because he was the youngest. He knew the way he felt about the ocean would never leave him now. It would be there always, right inside him.
There were things that no one would teach you—things about the water. You just knew them or you didn’t and no one could tell you how to read it. How to feel it. Miles knew the water. He could feel it. And he knew not to trust it.
Maybe that’s why Joe and Miles liked it so much. And he knew that Granddad would have taken him. It was just that he was too little, too small to go, when Granddad had been alive. And if Granddad hadn’t died then he definitely would have taken Harry fishing, too. And it would have been good, like this was.
He lived for this, for these moments when everything stops except your heart beating and time bends and ripples—moves past your eyes frame by frame and you feel beyond time and before time and no one can touch you.
He just kept starting at Harry. And his hand moved away from Harry’s hair, moved down to the string around his neck. And he cupped it in his palm—a white pointer’s tooth.
“It’s his,” he said, and his face went pale. “His.”
He let the tooth go. He stared down at Harry.
“She was leaving, because of him. Because of you.”
But ultimately it wasn’t up to you. This ocean could hold you down for as long as it liked, and Miles knew it.
There was a black emptiness inside him and it was all that he could see. He tried to imagine a fire in the darkness, and at first it was just one blue flame too small to feel. But he willed it on, felt the first flicker of warmth as it grew. Then it raged, turned into a ball of fire, orange and red and hungry. It devoured his stomach, moved up to his lungs, his back. Moved into his heart. He shared it with Harry through his skin.
He had been drifting for a lifetime and his mind had lost its way. It was dissolving and he had forgotten about Harry, forgotten about all the things that came before. There was only this vastness, the swing of a giant pendulum—water receding then flooding back. And he was part of it. Part of the deep water, part of the waves. Part of the rocks and reefs along the shore.
He listened to Joe talk about all the places they would go, the tropical islands and clear warm water, the big bright lights of new cities. The free open space of ocean. And he knew that Joe was going to take him with him, now. Wherever he went. He leaned his head down against his brother’s shoulder. And he let himself cry.
Miles let the rip that ran with the bluff carry him. He enjoyed the ride, felt his hands slipping through the cool water, body floating free. And there was this feeling in him like when it had all just been for fun, the water.
And Miles loved that light.
It made the dark water sparkle, turned the white spray golden—made the ocean a giant mirror reflecting the sky. Even the leaves on the crack wattle shone in the light.
It made everything come to life.
Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water—black and cold and roaring. Rolling out an invisible path, a new line for them to follow.
To somewhere warm.
To somewhere new.
Water Symbol Timeline in Past the Shallows
