Hurston

I thought of this as a coming of age story. The main character, John, really wanted to go out to sea and see everything that his father wasn’t able to because he was stuck there in Florida.  John talked about it his entire life, starting when he was just a small boy and continued talking about it into adulthood.

The mother, Matty, is a huge hindrance to John. I understand a mother’s need to keep their children near but by keeping him at home I think that she indirectly killed him. When John reached adulthood he stayed because she wouldn’t give her approval and he kept saying one more year for her to get used to the idea of his leaving. Then once he married Stella he still wanted to leave and go to sea, even though he now had a wife to support. Stella was a second voice that was keeping John where he was, she didn’t want him to leave.

John knew that it was his destiny to go to sea but not in the way that he finally did. John had an opportunity to go into the Navy and see the world as he has wanted for years but when he told his wife and mother his mother told him that if he left he shouldn’t ever come back because he would no longer be her child. This made him stay once again but I think this was the fatal flaw for this character. Because this was shortly before he was asked to help with the bridge before a strong storm came through.

John went to help with this bridge and told his father to stay behind because it would be too difficult for him. While they were working the storm arrived and John was one of the few that didn’t survive. When he was seen and was known to dead his father told the rescuers to let him float out to sea because that is where he had wanted to go. John did get to go out to sea but not as he expected.