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Date Posted: 16:47:19 04/11/07 Wed
Author: Covered by water
Subject: Re: Task One Group Two
In reply to: Adriana 's message, "Task One Group Two" on 06:06:20 04/08/07 Sun

Covered by water

Disappearing is a short story about a woman whose obssession with swimming changes her life, since she was a depressive overweight person, and becames much thinner than she was. The whole story, this woman swims obssessively,and as time goes by, she starts losing weight. The problem is that she is not satisfied about being thin, she wants to be thinner, and thinner. The self-destruction symptom is back. It reflects she was not a happy woman,her problem was not just all the pounds she carried, it was something else, a low self-steem issue. Beside that, she had a husband that was always censuring her, making her feel bad about the way she looked like. It was not just her husband, but also, she felt pressured by the society.
In this context of low self-steem, anxiety and depression, water plays an important role in this short story. Since swimming was the only thing this woman enjoyed doing, water can be seen as an important symbol. Before analising what the possible symbolic meanings are in desappearing, it would be interesting to clarify the concept of symbolism in literature. According to The elements of fiction, “A literary symbol can be anything in a story’s setting that suggests an abstract meaning to the reader in addition to its literal significance...The total context of a story also suggests a symbolic as well as literal reading of the narrative.” Once this conception is provided, it is possible to identify what symbolic meanings are related to water in this story.
Water can be considered in desappearing a symbol of motherhood or protection.As it was said before, the lady felt bad toward her husband, toward the society. Being in the pool would make her feel protected, far away from everything that she would feel diminished by. As the grossly overwieight woman narrated, “Looking down that shaft of water I know I won’t fall. The water shimmers eases up and down, the heft of me doesn’t matter i float anyway.” Then, the swimming pool was the place where she felt safe. The water itself, because of this protection, has a feminin tone, like a motherhood. This image of the woman in the swimming pool may be a reference to a baby in a placenta.
Another possible symbol is alienation. Beside the fact she felt safe in water, she was also alone there. It was the only moment she could be by her self and be who she wanted to.That was all she wanted, to be lonely, no one to be mean to her, to say things making her feel depressed. There she could desappear.Since she got thinner, the blondes(that would make fun of her) started to ignore her. She found out that now she really was by herself. Even the lane in the swimming pool was intirely hers. She would not make noise anymore while diving and she would swim silently, as she liked to be in the water. There is a part in the short story that her friend Lettie asks her what she is doing to herself, because she was too thin, and she answers, “I’m desappearing I tell her and what can I do about it not a blessed thing.” Then, The woman wanted to desappear, to be ignored, and the swimming pool provided all the atmophere of loneliness and alienation she needed.
In summary, water symbolises both protection(related to motherhood) and alienation. She wanted to be protected from her husband and society’s disapproval, and the water was the solution. She felt safe swimming, she felt safe in the water. Regarding alienation as a symble, as she said, she wanted to disappear,to be ignored by everybody. The woman did not want to be attacked by others anymore and loneliness would be the solution. Disappearing was the solution, no one could notice her and the water brought this feeling.

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