Metaphors for Ocean Life

Taking inspiration from Evie’s profession as an oceanographer, the novel consistently makes several extended metaphors comparing scientific facts about ocean life to truths about the emotional internal lives of humans. The title of the novel, Creatures, is a continuation of this motif, comparing the human characters who live on Winter Island to the ocean animals which surround them. Interestingly, even though Evie is both professionally and emotionally compelled by studying ocean life, the reader rarely if ever sees Evie in the midst of a scene actually studying or exploring ocean life. The chapters which see Evie explicitly drawing extended metaphors between ocean life and human life not take place in a certain time or setting, and instead read like journal entries which Evie has made, recording her observations.

The most prominent and symbolically significant metaphor is the body of the dead whale...