Grown

Jackson weaves references to marine life throughout Enchanted’s tale to signify her family, her stability, and her comfort zone. Enchanted introduces herself by declaring that “In [her] past life, [she] was a mermaid” (3), and that the ocean is where she feels most at home. She calls her family “beach bums” and says that when they moved to the suburbs, they became “a school of fish surrounded by white fisherman” (45). Enchanted feels out-of-place in her mostly-white school, like she can’t be her mermaid-self who sang freely. She hasn’t adapted to her new life as easily as her younger sister, and says that she thinks of herself as a fish out of water in a world where few people look like her, and even fewer share her love for singing.

When Enchanted meets Korey, she claims that “[He] makes me feel like home. My real home. Only mermaids can swim in emotions this deep” (121). Enchanted still relates the ocean and mermaid life to her feelings of home, but she now brings Korey into the equation, saying that his love belongs with her in her underwater world. However, once Korey begins to exert his control over her life, Enchanted begins to disconnect from the ocean and her fantasies about the sea. She looks out at the ocean during their tour, “at what was once my home, so close yet so far, then back at Korey. My new home” (177). Enchanted still feels an intense love for the ocean, but now decides that she must leave behind the familiar world of her childhood in order to surrender her life to a relationship with Korey.

Enchanted uses a variety of marine imagery to convey her emotions. When the first video of Enchanted and Korey singing together goes viral, she “[wants] to be a crab, roll up inside [her] shell and stay there forever” (109). When she sits in the diner after running away from Korey’s house, she feels like “[her] throat is full of sand and hunks of coral. I can’t sing. I can’t talk. How do I explain I’m a caught fish who needs to be thrown back into the sea?” (220). She compares Korey’s abuse to the stings of a jellyfish, and when Korey forces her to stay in her room in his house and only come out when he says so, she calls her small space “the tiniest fish tank I’ve ever lived in” (210). Enchanted knows and understands the ocean, and in moments of extreme duress, she clings to the marine world of her childhood to make sense of what she is feeling and experiencing during her time with Korey.

Korey’s close relationship with his late grandmother is mentioned throughout the novel, most often in rare moments of vulnerability with Enchanted. Korey’s watch symbolizes an extension of his relationship with his grandmother: the only woman in his life who loved him unconditionally and was there for him when his own parents were not. When Korey shows Enchanted his watch for the first time, he stresses that “there’s only one like it” (167), a detail that becomes significant in unmasking Korey’s murderer. The watch sets Korey apart, nodding to the love and care that his grandmother had for him in nurturing his one-of-a-kind talent and his love for music. Korey promises to marry Enchanted, and shows her that the diamonds set in his watch “were from [his] grandma’s ring,” and then promises that he will “bust [the watch] open and put [the diamonds] in [Enchanted’s] ring when they make it” (167). The diamonds of the watch will pass hands from Korey’s grandmother to Enchanted to signify Korey giving his love to another person, and the very idea of this romantic gesture puts Enchanted’s doubts about Korey out of her mind for a while.

However, Korey also uses this opportunity to remind Enchanted and the reader that he views her as an object: something that belongs to him. He says that when he makes a ring out of his grandmother’s diamonds and gives it to Enchanted, he will be able to see “[his] most prized possession on [his] most prized possession” (167). Enchanted is so wrapped up in the thrill of the moment, she doesn’t question Korey’s choice of phrase, but the reader understands this sentiment to be less romantic and more ominous.

When Enchanted sees the watch on Richie’s wrist following Korey’s death, she recognizes it immediately. She knows that Richie must have had something to do with Korey’s murder, because “Korey was wearing [the watch] when [Enchanted] saw him that night” (328). When Enchanted calls Jessica and alerts her to this development, Jessica eventually reveals her involvement in the murder. Jessica and Richie stole the symbol of Korey’s love for his grandmother and Enchanted. Enchanted finds the watch stowed away in Richie’s closet, and the watch becomes a symbol of guilt: not just Richie and Jessica’s guilt, but Korey’s guilt for romancing an underage girl and promising her a life that he never intended to deliver.