The Boat - Question 1

What is the significance of the title and what could the boat symbolize?

Usually a boat is a symbol of travel; A means of transportation humanity has been using for thousands of years, and has been humanity's protector from the dangers of the sea.

But in the short story "The Boat," the boat is warped. Though it may allow you to travel the seas, and protect you from drowning or aquatic predators, this boat traps those who work on it into the life of the maritime.

The first the boat appears, the narrator describes a peaceful scene of a ride on the boat when he was a child. The repetition of the phrase "the boat" in this segment also very clearly underlines its importance to the people who are "supported by it." For example, the narrator mentions his first memories of his mother, "repairing clothes [torn in] 'the boat,' preparing food [eaten in] 'the boat,' or looking for 'the boat' out the kitchen window."

Later on the boat is shown to be inextricably tied to the day-to-day life in the setting. It is the livelihood of all of the people in the town, and throughout the story the question of "how did things go in the boat today?" is heard more and more frequently.

The boat is finally seen for what it really is when the narrator turns sixteen. His education and opportunity to go out and live life becomes threatened as his father grows old and no one remains to work on the boat.

This clinging entanglement was foreshadowed by three symbols that first appear at the beginning of the story; The seaweed in his father's hair, the smell of the salt, and the brass chains he wears on his wrists to prevent chafing. The seaweed and salt represent how deeply the life on the sea has crept into their own lives, such that the odor clings to their belongings and the a plant found only within the sea's depths has ended up on their bodies.

Chains, too, are a symbol, though less of entanglement and more of imprisonment. Chains are what one would use when they must be sure that it stays, for example, I chain my bicycle to a post so it doesn't get stolen. The chains on his wrists, however, represent how his father has become trapped in the life of the boat.

A way of life that is obviously toxic to him, since in the story he "broke out into oozing salt-water boils," and how he must smoke and read instead of sleep to escape the drudgery of his life. A situation which could perhaps, coupled with the symbolism of the chains, allude to the prison of the boat being financial. He might be spending so much money on vices to dull the pain of his life that he may no longer leave.

In the final section of the story, we see how the boat also gains his son, with him vowing to "remain with [his father on the boat] as long as he lived." Upon realizing his son too would get trapped, and spurred on by his words, I think he chose to end his life by leaping from the boat during the storm, sacrificing himself to save his son from the cage of the boat.