Dark Water Rising

“‘Galveston is fast becoming the New York City of Texas,’ Uncle Nate had told Papa just two short weeks ago. ‘It’s the third richest city in the country by population. We have electric lights, electric streetcars, local and long-distance telephone service, and three big concert halls […] The 1900 census is projected to be better than thirty-seven thousand […] and all those people need houses, stores, and offices. There’s big money to be made there, Thomas. That foreman job could open the door to your own contracting business.’”

In this passage, Uncle Nate explains Galveston’s boom in population and wealth. This shows how much opportunity there is in Galveston before the storm. It helps to establish the setting as well as the stakes of the storm. This will make its destruction even more poignant.

“I knew Papa had never had a chance at much formal schooling, but I’d seen him study every book and paper we brought into the house. There wasn’t much he didn’t know, and little he’d tolerate when it came to incorrect language or bad manners.”

Papa’s characterization as a stern man who values education is developed here. Hale depicts a man who had little opportunity for an education but who values it so much that he self-educates, insists on a “correct” manner of speaking, and aspires for his own sons to go to college and establish stable, successful careers. This suggests some of the class pressures and pressures of social mobility placed upon Seth and the family in this work.

“I stared at them, a wrathy heat already building inside me. They were planning my life again, probably lining up delivery work like Ben was doing just so I could help pay for those blasted college classes I never wanted in the first place. I thought about all the fishing days this would cost me, and my anger swelled. Well, it wouldn’t do them any good. I might work the job, but I’d made up my mind about a few things. I’d be planning my own future from now on, and college wasn’t figured into any part of it.”

Seth’s frustration at his circumstances is clear in this passage. As a young man on the cusp of adulthood, Seth wants to be in charge of his own life. He resents his parents’ interference and their insistence that he go to college. Early in the novel, his plans are secret, and he worries about his father’s reaction. This quote does much to develop Seth’s character.