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Motif
Explanation and Analysis—Water:
James Baldwin uses the motif of water to signal both freedom and confinement in the novel. When it appears, it’s a herald of both tragedy and the understandable desire for release from everyday misery.
For example, having been beaten down by the world around him, Rufus decides to jump from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River in Chapter 2. His desperate leap into the black waters of the river is both a physical and emotional submission to drowning in his pain. By his own will, he is literally and figuratively overwhelmed by the Hudson.
Although all of Baldwin’s characters need water to survive, it's also inherently threatening. Because much of the story takes place on the island of Manhattan, Baldwin’s characters are surrounded by water at all times. The rivers and the ocean are a literal and metaphorical boundary separating Rufus, Vivaldo, and their companions from the outside world around them. Manhattan becomes a microcosm of America as a whole. It's a place where both joy and prejudice are amplified because it's sealed off by water on all sides.
Further, water behaves differently depending on where characters are. Baldwin contrasts the harshness of urban life with the quieter rhythms of Eric’s experiences in the American South. In New York City the Hudson and the Harlem River seem vast and rushing. They are cold, dark, utilitarian rivers, which—although beautiful from a distance—don’t generally bring any sense of peace to the characters who interact with them. Rufus describes seeing his first death as a child when another boy drowned in the Harlem River, which he then tragically repeats by leaping into the Hudson himself. However, in the countryside, streams and rivers can be sites of peace and pleasure. Instead of submerging bodies, their ambient sound and beautiful scenery help to conceal things people wish to keep private. LeRoy and Eric have a loving encounter in a secret place they find by the banks of a stream, hidden away from prying eyes that would condemn both their homosexuality and the idea of Eric’s friendship with a Black boy.
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