Importance of Water

Water represents the unknown, literally and figuratively, surrounding the main characters at all times. Lulu’s stubbornness regarding going on any sort of boat symbolizes the break she wishes to make between the present, and her history with Gerald. For Gerald, water represents the basis of his life’s work. Though he spends his later years exclusively on land, tending his trees, Gerald feels most at home on the sea. Luc’s near death in the Mediterranean was caused by his accidental discovery of Aegina’s husband with another woman. As he floats in the water for hours, his thoughts drift back to Aegina, whose name comes from the Aegean Sea. The recurring water scenes throughout Luc and Aegina’s childhood and adolescence are always surrounded by confusion or pain. There is one exception to this; when Aegina and Luc are toddlers, they frolic in the waves, giggling with pure delight and innocence.