Water As a Theme
As I reached for the keyboard, ready to add to my manuscript, I had an opening for the scene ready to flow from my fingers, but my brain got in the way. I suddenly realized I envisioned a scene including the road traveling along a river. In itself, there is nothing wrong with such an opening to a scene. That is, unless you have regular references to water in the narrative. I remembered several scenes which included water references of streams, springs, creek, rivers, and waterfalls. Where did these references come from? I had to look in order to find out if these references sprung from some happy coincidence or had I stumbled onto water-based theme.
I used the handy “find” tool to locate every mention of water and discovered an average of a water reference every two and one half pages. The situation of its mention covered nine different areas of symbolism or meaning. Yes, I did find a few references to water of a strictly descriptive nature; most occurrences conveyed some deeper meaning.
I had to ask myself if my subconscious thoughts drew me to inject meaning beyond my intentions. There was nothing wrong with water symbols, but what are the deeper meanings the inclusion of rivers, springs, and waterfalls?
Research, here I come. I quickly found an article listing the symbolism of water in writing from a general point of view and as a spiritual emblem. I found water as a theme across these symbols:
Life: The most obvious attribute of water is life. All life that we know about depends on water, even in the most arid conditions. Water is essential to life.
Reproduction: Water is necessary for everything to reproduce. Reproduction results in food production. For people, plants, and animals to thrive and reproduce, water is essential.
Rejuvenation: After a day in extreme heat, nothing feels so good as swim in a lake, river, or pond. Even drinking water from a fresh mountain spring lowers that body’s temperature and helps you endure the heat.
Movement: Water is, by nature, a symbol of movement. Rain falls and moves to lower places in the landscape forming streams, creeks, and rivers. These moving sources for water drain into lakes and seas, but always in motion.
Distribution: From the lakes and seas, evaporation carries water to the clouds, and the cycle continues with rain, puddles, streams ultimately returning to the seas.
Mystery: Water remains a mystery for most of us. The vast amounts of water on a world lay well below a depth where any human can see, let alone visit. That water cycles back to the surface and returns to the clouds. We see little the total water on our world.
Water is the great mystery and equalizer. We hardly understand the fulness of the waters of the skies, rivers, and seas. Water exists in three forms: liquid, gas, and solid. We all know the name of water–HOH, We can see it in liquid form, when it is on the surface of some sea or lake. We know the ice we skate on top of is another form of water. When we look into a clear sky, how many of us think “Oh, look–water.” I would guess not many.
These symbols of water match closely with the meanings my characters faced in my narrative so far. Thinking about my discovery, maybe I could make water as a theme an intended part of the journey of my characters.
M. Alden Phillips
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