Black Water
Recently on Tone Clusters, the Joyce Carol Oates Discussion Group, a young student began a discussion of Black Water, and how the Senator's power was detrimental to the young protagonist, Kelly Kelleher. It was a lively discussion, but we seemed to agree that it is the power, the aura of office, and the charisma of artifice that undoes her. Power is seductive, to those with power and to those near the powerful.When asked if we think of Kelly as a single hapless victim entranced by the power and prestige of the senator or if we think her slow drowning is more a representation of how American society is lulled and slowly drowning in its own obsessively consumerist culture, the consensus was not as clear. The incident could be a metaphor for society's behavior, but it is also reasonable to say that Kelly is complicit in her own fate, as we all are. However, that being said, there is no way Kelly could have anticipated her specific fate when she got in the car with the Senator. She is the victim of the Senator's ambition, which is so powerful that it prevents him from doing what almost any other individual would have done had his/her passenger been trapped in a car under water. The Senator could have tried to rescue her but chose not to. He could have called for help but chose not to. Kelly must have thought he would return to save her or would at least send someone down into the black water to save her. Anyone in such dire circumstances would continue to hope until the oxygen was depleted enough for them to fall unconscious.
I haven't read Black Water in several years, but the horror that Kelly faced in the cold black water stays with me emotionally, even after I have forgotten most of the details of the story. As I remember the early chapters of Black Water, it seems that JCO wanted us to understand Kelly's intoxication with the Senator and the political world of power, and how vulnerable that left her. Kelly could have exerted control, but she chose to go with the Senator. As far as why she did not try to save herself, I may not remember that part well, because my memory tells me that she did try but was unable to get out of the car. I'll have to read it again to see how that plays out in the book.
This story is different from most of JCO's work in that it is based upon easily recognized historical events. When I read Black Water, I could not stop thinking about the very real person who was left to drown when Ted Kennedy panicked and left Mary Jo Kopechne to drown without getting help. At the time of the historical incident, I was young and idealized the Kennedys and could not reconcile his actions with my idealized vision. I tried to understand how the Senator must have felt, must have panicked and must have blamed himself, must still blame himself (justifiably) for her death. It wasn't until years later, when I read Black Water, that I began to think about how Mary Jo must have suffered before she died from asphyxiation.
JCO has the power to take us places we could never go by ourselves.
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