Ada

Ada is Freshwater’s protagonist, who must come to terms with her identity as a liminal figure, straddled between the worlds of humanity and divinity. Ada is born as a daughter of Ala, the ultimate mother goddess: in effect, Ada is a divine figure who has been incarnated in a human body. In this way, Ada acts as a feminine Christ-figure throughout the novel, for just as Christ was incarnated in the Christian myth, so too is Ada incarnated in Freshwater. The We explain that this incarnation is nothing less than “madness,” for Ada is a goddess “stuffed… into a bag of skin” (20). The We go on to explain that Ada was born because Ala answered the prayer of Saul, Ada’s human father, who prayed for a daughter. That Ada is born as a result of a prayer further corroborates her status as a Christ-figure, for in...