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The Light Between Oceans Stedman Analysis

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The thrashing waves crash against the rocky island whose only guardian is the circulating beam of light coming from a lighthouse. Beside it sits a house that has bared loss, grief, and secrets but can only handle so much. Analyzing cultural, character, and themes in the story, The Light Between Oceans by M.L Stedman, explores how cultures affect different lives, the bonds between people can clash and concord, and the difference between right and wrong can re-shape an entire future.
The story which takes place during the 1920s in Point Partageuse, Australia, is influenced heavily by the dependence of lighthouses along the coasts to protect sailors out at sea. This factor is a major cultural influence throughout the story. The story starts …show more content…

One powerful theme in the story is the difference between right and wrong. From the beginning when the couple chose to keep the abandoned child, to the end of the story when they face the challenge of returning the child to her real parents, right and wrong becomes muddled with pure love. Ralph describes how each individual has an influence in life, “We always have a choice. All of us” (Stedman, 2012). The choice to keep the child was wrong but protecting the child from an unknown life was right in the couple’s eyes. Later in the story when the couple is caught keeping the child that was not rightfully theirs, the child is returned to her biological mother. The child does not understand the switch between mothers and wishes to be returned to the mother she has always known. This incidence proves the evolving theme of right and wrong because it is right for the child to be with her real mother, but wrong to take the child away from the mother she has always loved. This major adjustment changes the couple’s marriage, the happiness of the child, and the life of the biological mother. The marriage of Ralph and Izzy suffers from confusion, lack of trust, and despair as they loose the child they raised. The child and her new mother struggle to adjust to each other and make up time that has been lost over the years. The story proves the difficulty between right and wrong decisions and how the consequences can have a major

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