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Commercial fishing interests
The brother of the narrator’s mother and the fishing partner of his father, the narrator’s uncle isn’t mentioned until later in the story, even though he has presumably been part of the family fishing business for a long time. He acts as an assistant to the narrator’s father until he decides to work on a larger vessel, which will earn him enough money to buy a boat for his own family. The departure of the narrator’s uncle makes it necessary for the narrator to step into the role of helping his father. The uncle’s presence in the story reinforces how close-knit the family fishing operation is, while also showing how things can change with each generation.
The narrator’s uncle Quotes in The Boat
The The Boat quotes below are all either spoken by The narrator’s uncle or refer to The narrator’s uncle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Boat Quotes
On November twenty-first the waves of the grey Atlantic are very high and the waters are very cold and there are no sign posts on the surface of the sea. You cannot tell where you have been five minutes before and in the squalls of snow you cannot see. And it takes longer than you would believe to check a boat that has been running before a gale and turn her ever so care fully in a wide and stupid circle, with timbers creaking and straining, back into the face of storm. And you know that it is useless and that your voice does not carry the length of the boat and that even if you knew the original spot, the relentless waves would carry such a burden perhaps a mile or so by the time you could return. And you know also, the final irony, that your father, like your uncles and all the men that form your past, cannot swim a stroke.
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In this quote, the narrator describes the moment when he realized his father has gone overboard from the boat and died. The scene obliquely hints at the father’s death, becoming more explicit as the passage goes on. In part, this ambiguity is meant to mirror the narrator’s own experience of slowly coming to a dreadful realization. This ambiguity may also be the result of deliberate work by the father—even if the father’s death is indeed a suicide (as is heavily implied by a quote earlier in the story), it still can’t look like one. The father’s goal is to free Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Mi
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The narrator’s uncle Character Timeline in The Boat
The timeline below shows where the character The narrator’s uncle appears in The Boat. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Boat
The narrator’s maternal uncle is also his father’s partner, and while the father stays in bed the uncle helps...
(full context)
...able to help because it coincides almost exactly with his school term. Meanwhile, the narrator’s uncle is offered a position on a bigger boat, and everyone knows this means he’s leaving...
(full context)
...must wear heavier clothes. The narrator stands at the tiller of the boat, like his uncle once did. When the water gets choppy, he looks over at his father at the...
(full context)
...figure out the right direction to go. The narrator notes that his father, like his uncle and like many men of the wharf, can’t swim at all.
(full context)
