Celianne

Celianne is a young woman of fifteen who is on the boat with the first narrator. She is pregnant, rarely eats, and "stares in space all the time and rubs her stomach." Celianne has been raped and impregnated by the soldiers who had come to her house to arrest her brother. During the voyage she gives birth to a girl who is stillborn. The child's silence underscores the symbolism of her mother's silence, which indicates that spiritually, Celianne is already dead. When she throws the baby's body into the sea, she jumps in after it and drowns.

Male narrator

The male narrator's words are the first in the story. The reader never learns his name, but he reveals his circumstance to the reader through his writings. He is at sea after having fled his homeland, and he has left behind the woman he loves. As the story unfolds...