Karen Connelly

The ocean is mysterious to mankind. The unfathomable vastness of the ocean intrigues humanity into exploring it. In life, the immense possibilities that lie in the future compel us to reach for the stars. In the poem “The Story” by Karen Connelly, an individual willingly swims into deep waters even though they are fearful of what may exist in the waters. The swimmer later finds out that their fears were foolish, which illustrates the human tendency to venture into the unknown. The theme conveyed in this poem is that life is like a rough, uncertain, uncontrollable ocean that we must find get through with experience. In the first stanza, Connelly sets up the extended metaphor that compares swimming in the ocean to life. There exists a reality

Connelly uses a reflective tone to indicate that one must learn through experience. We learn through confronting what scares us and leaving our comfort zones. While struggling in a situation, the person involved usually realizes “[they] are a fool / come this far” (l. 10-11). Most people will attempt to find an escape, but often to no avail. Therefore, they must confront what they fear in order to move past it. Panicking what some people will resort to as “[their] heart / dissolves like a holy tablet / of salt” (l. 14-16). Swallowing salt water compares to accepting the various defeats everyone experiences on a daily basis. Hyperbole is used in these lines, because sometimes an individual may exaggerate by saying the burdens in their life are “killing” them. The third stanza exerts a calming mood, by describing that the object the swimmer was afraid of was “only a drifting body / of wood. Or a dolphin” (l. 17-19). This symbolizes that the obstacles in life are sometimes nothing to even spend a second worrying about. Depending on the circumstances, sometimes all that needs to be done is to take a step back and obtain a different point of view. In retrospect, fears are sometimes irrational because humans are wired to fear the