Importance of the Dive

The swimming hole that Eva and Lily visit on Eva’s 14th birthday, called the Dive, symbolizes the girls’ sharp turn toward adulthood and away from adolescence. At the swimming hole, Eva and Lily interact with a teenage boy, Robert, for the first time in the novel. Lily is shy around the boy, but Eva is confident and comfortable. At the top of the peak where people jump into the water, Eva jumps foot first without a thought; Lily is petrified and cannot jump. This contrast in confidence is symbolic of the girl’s eminent paths toward adulthood, a path that goes badly for Eva because her confidence leader her awry, but also poorly for Lily, whose tepidness lends her to darkness.