Black Water (novella)

infobox Book |
name = Black Water


image_caption = cover to "Black Water"
author = Joyce Carol Oates
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = E. P. Dutton
release_date = May 1992
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 154 pp
isbn = ISBN 978-0-525-93455-4

"Black Water" is a novella by Joyce Carol Oates and was originally published in 1992.

Plot introduction

Kelly Kelleher, a twenty-six-year-old magazine writer, meets a United States Senator on whom she wrote her thesis at a Fourth of July party. "The Senator," as he is referred to in the novel, plans to take her to his hotel for a romantic rendezvous, but a car accident plunges them into a swampy marsh. The story is primarily told in prolepsis.

Plot summary

The book begins with Kelly Kelleher in a car that is plunging into mucky, swampy, "black water."

We learn the events that led up to the accident in flashbacks as she is drowning:Kelly Kelleher attends a fourth of July party hosted by her friend Buffy St. John and her (Buffy's) boyfriend/lover, Ray Annick. She is planning to Stay with Buffy and Ray at their home for the entire weekend. Buffy is the "more worldly" of the two young women; the irony in this is that it is completely out of character for Kelly to get herself into such a situation. Ray has invited "The Senator" about whom Kelly wrote her graduate thesis. He immediately is interested in her sexually; he pays attention solely to her as the party drags on, and they discuss their common political beliefs. He follows her to the beach where he kisses her, and then invites her to come to his hotel with him on the ferry. As she packs her bags, Buffy tries to convince her not to go or to go later but Kelly thinks that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance and goes with him, despite the fact that he has been drinking and that she is not entirely sure that she is "ready" for any sort of relationship.

The Senator is drunk and takes the "old" Ferry Road instead of the "new" one; he is driving recklessly and drives directly through a guardrail into a marsh. We find later that, had he made the turn, the car probably would have fallen into the water a short distance down the road at an old bridge. The car sinks passenger side down.

At this point, The Senator uses Kelly's body to jettison himself upwards,out of the driver's side door. She tries to hold on to him to pull herself free; he kicks her, leaving his shoe in her hand. Kelly, badly injured and delerious, continually imagines that he will come back to "save" her, and also that he has gone for help. She repeatedly imagines seeing him outside of the car, or that she feels the car shaking as he tries to get her out (this alludes to the version of the Chappaquiddick incident told by Ted Kennedy ). She trusts The Senator until the very end of her life, certain that he will save her; it is possible that, because of this, she misses out on highly important lucid moments in which she could possibly save herself.

In reality, the senator has stumbled to an outdoor phone booth, carefully staying out of sight of passing cars, to call Ray Annick. He Tells Annick that Kelly became emotional and pushed the wheel because she was drunk, thus causing the accident, and that she is already dead.

Meanwhile, Kelly is following an ever-shrinking bubble of air to the top of the car as is fills with water. She becomes more panicked and delerious, and imagines that she is rescued and sent to the hospital where the "black water" is pumped from her stomach; this parallels an episode from college in which a suitemate tried to kill herself and had to have her stomach pumped. Kelly gets her imagery of the experience from the description of the other girl. The reader also learns about Kelly's own bout with suicidal thought and depression, triggered by the end of a relationship; Ironically, she has decided that she wants her life, that she wants to live, and this was part of the reason she decided to leave the party with The Senator in the first place.

She also repeatedly imagines her parents, and how she will explain to them that she is a "good girl" and argues that The Senator and his wife are separated, his children grown, and that their affair is causing no harm.

She remembers an article she wrote arguing against the death penalty in which she details the more gruesome and torturous aspects of different methods of execution; this underscores the cruelty and horror of her death.

As she grows closer and closer to death, her hallucinations become more vivid until she is imagining her parents, very old, watching her being pulled from the water in horror. She imagines herself as a child reaching up to be carried.

The book ends with a line that is repeated throughout the book: "As the black water filled her lungs, and she died."

Characters in "Black Water"

* Elizabeth Anne Kelleher, a.k.a. Kelly Kelleher. The protagonist. She works for a magazine, "Citizen's Inquiry". She wrote her thesis on The Senator. She is twenty-six years old, and suffers from acne and anorexia.
* The Senator, a Democratic US Senator. He is hard of hearing, an aggressive driver, tall, he likes to drink. He has been married for thirty years, although he is separated from his wife.
* Artie Kelleher, Kelly's father. He is a staunch Republican.
* Madelyn Kelleher, Kelly's mother.
* Uncle Babcock, Kelly's hard-of-hearing uncle.
* Grandpa Ross, Kelly's grandfather.
* Buffy St John, Kelly's best friend, she was her roommate at Brown University. She too is twenty-six years old and works for a magazine, "Boston After Hours".
* Ray Annick, Buffy's boyfriend. A mature lawyer friends with The Senator.
* Lisa Gardner, a girl who attempted suicide in college.
* Laura, Lisa's twin sister, who had also attempted suicide before college.

Major themes

* The novella parallels the Chappaquiddick incident, but Oates wants the story to be seen as the "archetypal" story "of a young woman who trusts an older man and whose trust is violated." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/oates-water.html Her Thoughts While Drowning ] ] Thus the theme of patriarchy pervades through the novel.

References to other works

* The song "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles is playing on the car radio [chapter 9] , paralleling the prosody of the novella.
* "The Education of Henry Adams" is quoted in chapter 32. [Penguin Books, paperback edition, Acknowledgements page]

References to actual history

* The 1991 Gulf War is mentioned by The Senator. [chapter 24]
* Both Republican presidents George H. W. Bush [chapter 12] and Ronald Reagan [chapter 15] are castigated in the narrative.
* Bobby Kennedy and the Vietnam War are also referred to as representing the cushy Democrat era. [chapter 9]

Literary significance and criticism

The novella was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993.

It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.

Adaptations

Black Water was adapted into an opera. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/oates-water.html Her Thoughts While Drowning ] ]

Footnotes