A Song Below Water

“There’s noth­ing like be­ing in the wa­ter. Peo­ple ask me if it’s qui­et, if that’s why I like it. It makes sense; I’m qui­et, I must want the world to be the same way.

Tavia asks me that; Tavia is peo­ple.

The thing about be­ing un­der­wa­ter is that it’s not—qui­et, I mean. I can’t hear what’s hap­pen­ing above the sur­face, but when I’m to­tal­ly sub­merged, I hear the wa­ter. I hear its song, the way it sings to it­self and an­y­body who co­mes be­low to hear it. I love the way it nev­er changes, and the way I’m al­ways dif­fer­ent when I’m here.

Some­times I bring my head above the sur­face when I don’t need a breath, just so I can duck back un­der and hear the song start again.”

Effie voices her passion for water, a key part of her character. These descriptions of water develop her character and provide sensory imagery—reinforcing water as a safe haven and alluding to the motif of siren songs.

“Part of the rea­son we im­me­di­ate­ly glommed onto each oth­er must be that we know what it is to feel like there’s some­thing wrong with us. And like our families know it. I didn’t know an­y­one else un­der­stood the sting of love mingled with obvious dis­ap­prov­al till I saw Mr. Phil­ips with Tavia.

And still some­times I envy them. Be­cause at least there’s blood be­tween them.

At least they know what Tavia is.

At least she knows what her fam­i­ly dis­ap­proves of.”

The theme of The Bonds of Sisterhood is present in this quote, giving context and specificity to Tavia and Effie’s unbreakable bond based on a shared feeling of being othered. Effie also reveals her envy over not knowing her identity and Tavia’s family’s disapproval. Searching for her identity is Effie’s plot line.

“I bare­ly have time to get in the house be­fore the lec­ture be­gins. Ear­li­er I’d been re­lieved not to have to see my dad all day, but re­al­ly that only made it worse. It’s meant that in the back­ground, eve­ry­where we were and no mat­ter what I was doing, I kept im­ag­in­ing his re­sponse.

Not his words, but the way they’d make me feel.”

Tavia’s anxiety over facing her father Rodney is a repeated conflict that suppresses her sirenness and ability to speak up. She doesn’t want to anger or disobey him, but Rodney is a fearful, harsh character whose concern for Tavia manifests as commands and disapproval.