The Water Dancer

by

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Water Dancer makes teaching easy.

Water Dancing

Water dancing is an act that ties together many of the novel’s central themes: rebellion, freedom, love, skill, and memory. When Hiram was a little boy, his mother Rose and aunt Emma used to water…

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The River Goose

The River Goose is a river that runs by Lockless, the plantation where Hiram was born. To some characters in the novel, it is a symbol of danger and death, but for Hiram and…

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Lockless

Lockless is the plantation where Hiram was born and grows up, and it is a symbol of captivity, injustice, and the ways in which slavery distorts one’s sense of family and home. The name “Lockless”…

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The Coffin

“The coffin” is a phrase many of the characters in the novel use to describe slavery (particularly as it exists in the Deep South), and is thus a way in which the novel characterizes slavery…

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