The Same Black Water as You

"Am I going to die? -- like this?" (3). This question pulls the reader along for 150 more pages as we too wish to know if Kelly Kelleher is going to die this way and how she has gotten herself into this position. By beginning the story near the end, Oates allows the reader to see the most honest version of Kelly’s character. As we move forward through a series of prolepses and analepses, our confusion parallels Kelly’s. The reader’s confusion about whether Kelly is dead or alive, going to be rescued or not, and where we really are in time at any given moment allows for a stronger identification with Kelly’s emotional states. As with many of Oates’ female characters, we experience hope, defeat, exhilaration, and fear with Kelly which allows the story to haunt our memories long after the book is over.

One of the first things Oates tells us about Kelly is that she has no voice with men. When faced with a situation that involves speaking up to men "you could not speak, there were no words" (5). This introduces us to Kelly’s dilemma, but the use of the second person is a stylistic bit of genius that pulls the reader even further into identification with Kelly. Since the story is written to reflect a common experience of young women as feeling free and powerful, yet ultimately finding themselves at the mercy of a male dominated society, it is important that the young female reader insert themselves quickly into this plot.

Oates pushes the reader through a twenty-six year life of tragedy wherein American society attempts to tell women that they are independent and powerful. "You love the life you’ve lived, you’re an American girl. You believe you have chosen it" (152). Kelly believes this too even as through her memories we see that the projections of her independence have been framed through what others allowed her to be. She is defined not by her accomplishments, but by who she is in relation to men. She is defined always as "somebody’s little girl" (45) and as something helplessly being acted upon: "I’ve made you want me, now I can’t refuse you" (115). Even the possibility of her death is described in a fashion that reads like a rape scene as Kelly understands that the illusion of her control is simply that - an illusion. She reflects on being "rendered incapable of screaming and… from the first instant of realizing herself out of control, the fate of her physical body out of control of her brain, she had had no coherent perception of what in fact was happening" (10).

Still, no matter how many times the story comes back to the present moment where Kelly is trying to keep her head above the thick, murky water, she persists in her youthful trust. She holds tightly to the idea of "Daddy’s authority" (52) and the interest of the Senator in her as being enough to save her. She ignores the way she has been used and clings to the hope that the very men who use her and fight to keep her secretly powerless will be the ones to save her. In her delusional state, Kelly continually imagines that the Senator will come back for her or she sees herself reaching up for her fathers arms. It is this misplaced trust in older men that has been her downfall and yet, she reaches to that place even in death. Perhaps this constant trust at our own expense is what it truly means to be an "American girl".

Though it is lost on Kelly, it is not lost on the reader that the Senator literally used Kelly’s body to push himself out of the car to safety. It is described so pitifully that even Kelly must acknowledge how her girlfriends would laugh at her: as she grabs at his foot in a desperate plea for help, he kicks her to make her let go, pushes off of her body to force himself up toward the surface of the water. She is left, still trapped in the car, clinging to his shoe as if the shoe itself might save her. This underscores the unspoken idea throughout Black Water that a man will use a woman to create more power for himself while creating the illusion that she has more power by allowing herself to be used.

Kelly falls prey constantly to the ideas thrust upon young American women by society. She believes that when something goes wrong, it is her fault and that love will save the day. Even as she is facing the possibility of dying in the dark alone, her thoughts drift toward this horrifying death being something perhaps she deserves, "as if to punish her for her behavior her performance as a self not herself" (48). She punishes herself for not speaking up sooner and questioning the Senator on being lost. Still, she believes everything will be ok if she trusts in love, because this is what she has been taught to believe. "Mommy, Daddy, hey I love you, you know that I hope, please don’t let me die I love you, okay" (119) changes to her offering to love the Senator in a last act of desperation. "She wasn’t in love but she would love him, if that would save her. She’d never loved any man… but she would love that man if it would save her" (152).

Despite Kelly’s inability to see her lack of power and independence in the situation, the reader can see it all the more clearly through the scope of the tragedy. It is a potent reminder then to young American women that we must not rely on others to save us; we must turn the idea of choosing our lives into a reality. The powerful connection with Kelly and her internal state allows the reader to understand how being an "American girl" is actually hegemonic code for withstanding the debasement of women. Oates provides both a memorable story and an important warning.