Water Map

“All I know is that water is that water is what you cannot carry without a container.  And the life of mine, still so young and uncontained, was already shaped and being shaped beyond what I could know.  I was fifteen and in a tipping vessel.” (37)

Tipping vessel:  The ship she happens to be on, but a reference to the container she signifies.  She is a tipping, off-balanced container.

Water: Fluid, revitalizing, destructive, pouring in, pouring out, transparent, deep, evasive.

Container:  Has no purpose apart from its function (to contain) which is embedded in its name.  It can serve other purposes but will always be misplaced and off-kilter.

Human beings:  Can be filled and emptied.  Hogan’s identity is shaped, not by the container ( her body), but by “unknown forces.”  There is no harmony between the life she leads, and the body she dwells in.