Does It Hurt?

A critical aspect of Sawyer’s development is the power of survival situations to reveal the truth of a person’s character and intentions. With Kevin, Sawyer shows her power and agency by killing her abuser, Kevin, and stealing from men who objectify her as a means to sustain herself. These moments define Sawyer as a person: strong, brave, and independent. However, in the moment following the sinking of the Johanna, she also discovers her ability to love and desire another person: Enzo. Despite being in a situation where she is as much in danger as Enzo, she struggles to save him, revealing her intrinsic connection to him. Throughout the novel, survival is the goal for both Sawyer and Enzo, but in the process of surviving, they discover who they really are and develop as characters.

A defining moment for Sawyer comes as she is forced to confront Sylvester’s advances, thinking, “But while I may be a runner, I’m sure as hell not a fucking doormat. I will always fight back” (260). Though Sylvester then injures Sawyer with a strike to her face, Sawyer asserts herself in this moment. The use of expletives to emphasize her agency and strength serves to highlight her determination in the face of danger. Her primary method of survival is being a “runner,” fleeing from danger, but Sawyer won’t back down from that threat when pushed to the edge of violence. After the strike, Sawyer manages to escape, returning to her primary survival method. She retreats to the comparative safety of the cave, representing her desire for peace and beauty. Sawyer is only violent in dangerous situations; her urge to survive and return to safety shows that violence and anger are not her true self, but a means to return to herself.

For Enzo, violence is a critical part of his life and self, and he often uses it as a means of gaining control. He is inherently wary and sensitive due to the abandonment issues created by his past. His professional interaction with sharks offers a way for him to interact with something dangerous while maintaining control over his circumstances. As Enzo is routinely threatening or violent, this makes it difficult to categorize him as a “good” character, despite him being one of the novel’s two protagonists, although his possessiveness and physical dominance relate to archetypes within the dark romance genre. With Sawyer, he initially sexually assaults her as retribution for stealing his identity. It is a means of regaining the control over her that he feels he lost. In later sexual encounters, he persists in being coercive in a manner eroticized by the author, but he isn’t as violent as he initially was. This is likely because Sawyer is no longer the one with power over him; Sylvester is. As Sawyer and Enzo bond, his remarks about hurting her are increasingly non-threatening and playful. This occurs alongside the increasing threat from Sylvester, which culminates in Enzo finally needing to use violence as a means of surviving their circumstances. When he does so, it is with fire, an inherently uncontrollable force. It is also the opposite—both literally and symbolically—of water, which he has felt most comfortable and controlled in as a marine biologist. He uses fire to get out of the basement, then again to hurt Sylvester. Like Sawyer, he uses this uncontrollable rage as a means of protection and vengeance. When pushed to the limit, they each discover a violent side of themself, designed only to secure safety. Though Enzo often expresses jealousy, even with his friend at the end of the book, his threats are often unrealized and only meant to illustrate the depths of his feelings for Sawyer. The survival situations they’re placed in ultimately show them both what they’re capable of physically and emotionally.