42 pages • 1 hour read
Pat ConroyThe Water Is Wide: A Memoir
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Music
Music is a recurring motif throughout the book. The children’s interest in music is one of the first keys to unlocking their education. After observing the children’s love of music, Pat introduces them to classical music. They learn to identify the music and the composers to an extent that they can best white visitors in trivia competitions. Pat hopes that this experience will help convince the children that they are as capable of learning as anyone else.
Music also plays a part in their exposure to the wider world when Pat invites a musician from the mainland to visit the school and share his experiences. The musician also hands out records to the children.
Even as Pat encourages the children to enjoy both classical and popular music, Mrs. Brown fears that by doing so, he is setting them up to develop the same “bad” habits as their parents: “Drinkin’ and singin’ and sinnin’ on Saturday night” (121).
Flags
Conroy employs flags as a motif for exploring political ideologies. He notes that the “faded American flag” (79) that flies in Ted Stone’s garden “seem[s] to symbolize Stone’s allegiance to his country which [is] blind, uncompromising, unconditional, and […] almost Third Reich in its fervor and rigidity” (79).
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By Pat Conroy
