43 pages • 1 hour read
Lauren WolkBeyond the Bright Sea
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Family and Alternative Kinships
A dynamic between the natural relationships of biological family and powerful connections of unrelated people brought together runs throughout the novel. Though raised by Osh since the first few hours of her life, Crow yearns to discover her biological family. She wants an explanation of why her parents put her to sea at birth and why residents of Cuttyhunk fear she may have come from Penikese. Ultimately, however, Crow’s search fails. The connections she finds to her biological family, though valuable, are only artifacts: a tattered letter, a ring, some carvings on a grave and cottage, and the treasure. The one living relative she knows about—her brother Jason—remains elusive.
However, the main goal of Crow’s quest—a desire to find her identity—is successful. The process of the search has validated the importance of the alternative kinship she has formed with Osh and Maggie.
Crow, Osh, and Maggie are a loving found family. Osh and Maggie do not simply take care of Crow; her presence in their lives gives them meaning and love. Osh withheld the tattered letter from Crow’s mother for years out of fear she might have been taken away or want to leave “because you wanted to be somewhere better than a shack on a rock in the middle of nowhere” (52). Crow reassures him, saying “I’m happy here with you” (52). Maggie, who, Osh says “came over again and again, always with something new in her basket” after she washed ashore (46). Maggie’s care for both Crow and Osh is equally strong—she is their schoolteacher, food supply, connection to civilization, and above all their friend.
The rugged Osh and headstrong Maggie do not seem like they would make a nurturing, lovely surrogate family. Yet by showing them to be precisely that for Crow, Beyond the Bright Sea suggests that chosen families are just as valuable as birth ones. At the end of the novel, Crow and Osh confirm this, agreeing that their names mean “daughter” and “father” (282-283).
The Power and Danger of Secrets
Keeping and uncovering secrets is central to Beyond the Bright Sea.
Some secrets have the power to protect. Most obviously in this category are Susanna’s plans for taking care of her children. She sets her daughter Crow adrift just hours after birth in hopes that she finds a better life, and “someone good-hearted” to care for her (276), and digs a false grave to hide the treasure she found and preserve it for Crow and Jason to discover later. Even open people soon realize the importance of protective secrets. After Kendall uses Nurse Evelyn’s story to steal from her, Evelyn becomes guarded. As she writes Crow, “You sound like an honest person looking for answers, but I have learned that not everything is as it seems and not everyone can be trusted” (169-170).
Secrets can also bring about harm. Kendall preys on Evelyn after learning her secrets, then hiding and abuses Sloan to pursue the treasure. In a more subtle way, the mystery of Crow’s origins cause the residents of Cuttyhunk are able to draw the conclusion that she came from an undesirable place—Penikese—and they shun and mistreat her out of fear she may have leprosy.
Revealing personal secrets allows characters to expose their vulnerability and form closer interpersonal bonds. Osh shares the secret letter that he’s kept from Crow, along with his hidden fear that his adopted daughter may want to leave him. Osh’s gradual opening up to reveal some details about his past solidifies his connection to and support of Crow.
Solitude and Independence
The environment of the Elizabeth Islands can be rough: windswept, separated from the mainland, and prone to storms, shipwrecks, and harsh winters. By virtue of this fact, the residents of the islands must be tough, independent, and comfortable with some measure of solitude. There is a difference, however, between chosen and enforced isolation, and each comes with challenges and opportunities.
The case of Sloan demonstrates the potential dangers of an isolated life. Hired to be the gamekeeper and sole resident of the island of Penikese, Sloan is comfortable being alone on the site of the former leper colony. Yet this makes him vulnerable to Kendall, who overtakes him and easily hides him since no one is likely to notice Sloan’s absence. Ironically, Sloan is only rescued because Crow is also fiercely independent—”brave enough to cross to New Bedford alone,” she later asserts to herself (137).
Isolation also fosters resourcefulness. When Crow journeys to New Bedford on her own, at first, she feels “startled by the place,” stinking of “whale and waste” (133). However, she quickly acclimates and even pursues Kendall to a pawnshop to investigate this shady man. Similarly, she is independent enough to spend the night alone in Osh’s cabin when he and Maggie care for Quincy. Though Kendall attacks her that night, she quick-wittedly outsmarts him.
Crow is a naturally independent person, but she is deeply sensitive to the feeling of being isolated—something she experiences when townspeople avoid touching her out of superstitious fears. This makes Crow empathetic to the former residents of the leper colony on Penikese, the epitome of isolation. She is critical of those who did not send aid to the colony’s residents, and understands the rationale behind her mother’s plan to send her away from the island.
Independence also cannot preclude mutually satisfying relationships. Before finding Crow, Osh refused to speak with others; curious, but shunned, Jason also withholds speech until he is five years old. When Crow finds a stable life with Osh and Maggie, their independence creates an opportunity for peace, safety, and self-sufficiency.
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By Lauren Wolk
