The Symbolism Of Water In The Film Whale Rider

Water Symbolism Essay
A colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain and is the basis of the fluids of living organisms. The symbol of water is much greater than its physical description. Water is life and without water, we are nothing. Water is everywhere, water is much larger than life, water is the key to the future. A significant quote about water is “Thousands, have lived without love, not one without water” (Auden). We cannot become the person we want to be without water. In the passage The River and in the film Whale Rider, the symbol of water is about honoring tradition through water. In both short stories The Enemy and Speaking of Courage & Notes water represents the physical separation

His relationships, happiness, everything. He keeps circling around it because it is all that he has left, and in fact, the lake itself has become bad--a place that holds war memories of a deadly body of water. The road is a symbol for the mindset he cannot seem to leave no matter how negative his opinion of the town has gotten. Norman notices a sprinkler on a lawn he passes, saying that it was going “Hopelessly, round and round” (O’Brien, 140). That is exactly what he is doing driving around the lake, trying to trigger positive images from his life but he is not able to, he just keeps going around and around the lake like the sprinkler. The Song Tra Bong River is a symbol of the once pure lake that would turn to mud and create a disaster that would overflow his life for a long time, if not forever. Norman explains that the river “was exactly like any other river, nothing special” but in the wet seasons that “the rains never stopped, not once, and so after a few days the Song Tra Bong overflowed its banks and the land turned into a deep, thick muck” (O’Brien, 135). This represents the turning point in his life from clear and simple to a never ending rain turning the river into muck. During the war his life felt heavy and difficult to get through. Water in the end of this story represents how life can change. Early on he had a happy and easy existence, but ultimately war changed his life to be a scary and difficult one, where he literally had to survive in the wet