Escaping the Giant Wave

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2003

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Waves

Waves symbolize the change of life in the novel. In particular, the great wave of the tsunami washes away Kyle’s old life and leaves him more mature and braver than he was before. Kyle is less confident in himself and mostly reliant on his parents before he endures the earthquake, fire, and tsunami waves. He isn’t sure if the tsunami is really coming or not and has significant doubts about his decisions. When Kyle sees the tsunami, he knows “there was no point in us running into the woods now; the wave traveled far more swiftly than we could” (101). Just like the wave, the change that came into Kyle’s life is unavoidable. The wave spurs on Kyle’s coming of age because his doubts have been banished with it. As the tsunami wave leaves and returns to the ocean, Kyle’s worries about his choices leave as well. He becomes more self-assured.

Kyle’s Sea Picture

Kyle’s sea picture serves as a symbol for his ideal vision for his life. He gathers a variety of materials on the beach to create an image he’s proud of and includes seaweed, bird feathers, broken shells, and more. He believes his effort in creating the sea picture is one deserving of an image, and he regrets making it close to the shoreline where it will dissolve quickly. As he tries to memorialize his effort, Daren smashes the sea picture and ruins it. The sea picture’s destruction mirrors the destruction that Kyle will face in his life and the point of change that he will undergo through the earthquake, fire, and tsunami. Just as he snaps a photo, Daren’s feet––symbolizing the natural disasters to come––erase what he once knew and rearrange the elements in the sand. Kyle’s astonishment also reflects his own reactions to the events throughout the novel as he’s too focused on being generally overwhelmed and surviving to think further about what’s really happening.

Warnings

Warnings are littered throughout the novel. The first warning is the tsunami warning sign that Kyle and his family read at the beach. However, nobody in the town trusts the tsunami warnings because nothing has ever happened before. Norm, a local, tells Kyle and BeeBee, “Warning signals only work if people trust them,” and “the folks who live around here have lost their trust” (79). The tsunami warning on the beach ends up being the deciding factor in Kyle’s decision making throughout the novel. He thinks of the sign constantly as he and BeeBee are on the run from the water. Kyle thinks about how “the warning sign had said to go as high up and as far away from the water as possible” and that motivates him to keep moving (116).

When the warnings are not taken seriously, there are dire consequences. For example, the people on the beach counting down until the tsunami is supposed to hit do not take the warning seriously at all. In fact, Daren relished in his lack of seriousness: “He had been in an earthquake and a hotel fire, and now he was standing at the edge of the ocean during a tsunami warning” (92). As a result, the people on the beach were most likely swept away in the first wave and killed. Daren only takes the tsunami warning seriously at the last moment, and that one moment saved his life as he was swept up onto the hotel’s elevator shaft, where could hold on to something concrete.

Animals

The animals in the novel help to show the importance that nature has on the lives of the characters. Although nature can be disastrous like with the earthquake and tsunami, it can also be helpful. The cows mooing as the tsunami alarm is helpful for the people in town. Because cows are not frightening, the town decided to use the sound of cows mooing for a tsunami warning (77). This is unintentionally confusing for visitors like Kyle and BeeBee, but the mooing is meant to be a helpful sign for people to prepare for an emergency. Before Kyle knows that the mooing is a track, however, Kyle wonders if it is a bad sign since “animals sometimes sense a natural disaster ahead of time” (75).

Pansy also demonstrates the helpful nature of animals. Without Pansy, Kyle and BeeBee would not have had advance notice of when either of the tsunami waves were coming. With the first wave, Pansy gives a warning bark and is “shaking as if she were scared silly” (100). This natural reaction from Pansy is what prepares the characters for the first big wave. Pansy’s instincts save Kyle and BeeBee again when the second wave comes (113). Knowing that animals have the instinct to sense when something is wrong, Kyle and BeeBee would have had a much more difficult time surviving the tsunami without Pansy’s help.