The Young Man and the Sea

“I been bailing Rose for months, getting up before dawn to pump out the bilge and keep her floating. Just in case my dad decides to get his lazy duff off the TV couch and go fishing. That’s where he lives ever since the funeral, lying like a sack of nothing on the TV couch. Most times he don’t even put the TV on, he just sucks on his beer and stares at the cobwebs on the ceiling.

It ain’t like he’s a real drunk. He don’t beat me or curse me or nothin’. He just lies there feeling sorry for himself and it don’t matter what I do or say.”

This quote establishes Skiff and Skiff Sr.’s reactions to Skiff’s mother’s death, further symbolized by the boat Mary Rose (named after her). Whereas Skiff fights to keep him and his father afloat, emotionally and financially, Skiff Sr. struggles with depression. The impact of Mary Rose’s death and Skiff’s care of his father thus illustrate The Centrality of Family.

“My dad’s family, the Beamans, they was swampers. That’s local talk for white trash, I guess. […]

There are rich Spinneys and poor Spinneys and regular Spinneys, but there ain’t no swamp Spinneys, and my mom’s family never let my dad forget it, believe you me. Mom never liked that, and stood up for my dad. She always said we all came from the same place, if you go back far enough, and what did it matter what named they put on the headstones?

The name on her headstone is Mary Roselyn Spinney Beaman, so you might say she got to have it both ways.”

This quote develops the dynamic between Spinney Cove’s socioeconomic classes. The Spinneys’ (Mary Rose’s family’s) classism toward the Beamans (Skiff Sr.’s family) is reflected in Tyler Croft’s bullying of Skiff, whom he views as a low-class “swamper.” However, Mary Rose’s defense of her husband and loyalty to both of her families reinforce The Centrality of Family.

“They say a thing that’s broke can always be fixed, if you work at it. And that’s what I intend to do, no matter what.”

This quote about the sunken Mary Rose also applies to Skiff and Skiff Sr.’s grief over the deceased Mary Rose. Like the boat, the family can be fixed, no matter how “broken” they appear to be.