What Is Water Symbolism In Dreaming In Cuban

The ocean has tides that push and pull the sand, the rock, and the land around it, sometimes taking a piece of the shore with it and never returning it back again. As seen in “Dreaming in Cuban,” water can take from and bring comfort to its characters. Water is a symbol for the grief and transformation the characters experience in “Dreaming in Cuban,” as evidenced by Felicia’s, Celia’s, and Lourdes’ relationship with water. Having lived most of her life by the sea, Celia experiences the pull of the tides within every major moment of her life. The ocean is a paradox to her – serving as an agent of comfort and isolation. Water aids Celia in her healing, but also separates her from her loved ones. The novel opens with Jorge, Celia’s husband,

The “wet landscape” in her palm allows her to quench any flames that would arise to suffocate her. Later in the

It is unclear whether she dies at the end of the novel or simply chooses to “retire” from the passions of life. Nonetheless, Celia’s final moments of the novel show her releasing her grief into the tides and drifting into peace. In contrast to her mother, Felicia never learned to cope with grief. She continued to try to forcefully hold onto happiness, creating new realities amidst her mania. Due to her forceful will, and her inability to “carry water in a basket” and cope, she passed away after her Santeria initiation ritual. The mysticism of Santeria “rejected” her and ultimately allowed her to escape from life to her own reality. Similarly, Lourdes is unable to allow water to soothe her and continues to view it as a punishment rather than comfort. When Lourdes travels to Havana for Felicia’s funeral, she detests the communism and culture now rampant all over Cuba. Although Lourdes crossed an ocean to face her mother again, in the process, she decides that the distance between the shores is necessary. She sends her nephew, Ivanito, back across the ocean to New York. As if compensating for the loss of her unborn son and for the failure in her and Pilar’s relationship, she pushes Ivanito to conquer the ocean, in a last effort to atone for all her sins and release her