47 pages • 1 hour read
Laura MartinFloat
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Emerson’s Weighted Shoes
Content Warning: This section contains discussions of ableism.
The novel’s inciting incident—Emerson’s loss of his weighted shoes to the lake—imbues the shoes with symbolic resonance: the loss of the shoes makes him less safe, but it also makes him freer, more able to fully live his life. As a level five RISK kid, Emerson’s mother equips him with two fail-safes to keep his RISK factor in check at all times: his weighted vest, and his pair of weighted metal shoes. When he wears them, he cannot float away unexpectedly, but they also drastically inhibit his ability to move freely in his life, play with others, or even spend extended outside of his room. Both Emerson and his mother have convinced themself that multiple fail-safes are necessary as a result of their own trauma, anxiety, and society’s implicit bias against those with RISK factors. If the straps of his vest were to come loose, his shoes would keep him safe. He only ever takes the shoes off occasionally inside his home, which isolates him and prevents him from connecting with others. Although this system makes sense from the perspective of preserving his life, it prevents him from Living Life Fully.
When Hank and Eli throw the shoes into the lake, they force Emerson to rely solely on his weighted vest or on ropes to keep him grounded. Emerson feels frightened but also exhilarated to participate in all the things he has missed out on for so long. Although Hank retrieves the shoes for him at the end of the story, Emerson ultimately throws them back into the lake himself—a conscious choice that signals he’s no longer willing to weigh himself down unnecessarily at the cost of his happiness. He knows that he could die if he were to float away, but he considers living a full life to be well worth the risk.
The RISK Level System
Martin’s characterization of the RISK level system in the world of Float creates a direct parallel with government regulation and legislation concerning people living with disabilities in the United States. In Emerson’s world, all people with RISK factors receive a level between one and five that indicates how severe or dangerous their RISK Factor is. Emerson is a level five because his floating puts him at such a great risk of physical peril, although without posing any direct danger to anyone around him. When the Red Maple boys first introduce themselves, Eli notes that they do not need to say their level. He and Mr. Blue explain that the level system is a way to segregate and categorize people with RISK factors, exposing them to discrimination and oppression. The levels separate them from each other instead of letting them focus on their similarities.
Martin uses the level system motif to discuss Ableism and Disability. Medical, psychiatric, and government classification systems do not always accurately represent the lived experiences of people with disabilities. For instance, many people with autism object to terms like “high-functioning” and “low-functioning”—noting that they are inaccurate and incomplete descriptions. These classifications can alienate people and make it more difficult for them to stand in solidarity with each other—a point Float illustrates succinctly. Later in the story, Emerson recognizes that he feels comfortable around his fellow RISK kids because of their shared experiences and the ways that being around other RISK kids normalizes their abilities. He realizes that it’s at home and at school where he feels most uncomfortable and different.
Life Lists
Martin establishes the motif of the life lists to represent the novel’s thematic interest in Living Life Fully. Hank introduces his fellow campers to the idea of a life list, which he distinguishes from a bucket list because it focuses on life rather than death. Every time Hank crosses something off his list, he considers himself to be one year older. At the beginning of camp, he is chronologically 12, but he considers himself to be 98 as a result of completing so many life list elements. Whenever he completes an item on his list, he has to add another—making the list never-ending and allowing him to live an expansive life that will never stagnate. For him, dying with an unfinished life list is a goal, not a failure. Hank encourages everyone to make their own lists, which can have items that are relatively easy to achieve (winning capture the flag) as well as items that might never happen (climbing Mount Everest). The life lifts play a critical role in each of the Red Maple boys’ character arcs.
The boys’ shared investment in each other’s life lists underscores The Power of Friendship in their lives. All of them go out of their way to help each other check things off their lists, especially when it comes to helping Murphy. All of the campers know that Murphy wants to have an amazing summer because he believes it is his last. They do what they can to uplift him and to help him achieve his life list goals. They even go so far as to lasso a pig with him, turning the silly and dangerous idea into a fun game. At the end of the story, Hank encourages them to cross off at least 15 items from their lists before they meet up again the following summer. In this way, the life lists become an ongoing way to feel connected to each other even when they are apart.
