Madwoman

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

In Madwoman, the motif of water manifests in multiple forms that reflect and amplify the text’s exploration of The Commodification of Safety. Early on, Clove’s mother’s obsession with bottled water represents both the desperate need for control in an abusive environment and the futility of attempting such control—the water bottles became objects of safety that ultimately could not protect her family against violence and abuse from Clove’s father. The still water contained in bottles contrasts sharply with the threatening expanses of the ocean, where the father’s attempt to drown the protagonist marked a crucial moment of trauma. In this way, water functions as a contradictory symbol—representing both the possibility of safety and the failures of protection—which mirrors the nature of Clove and her mother’s characterization.

The novel also develops water’s symbolic significance through its connection to Hawaii’s island setting, where Clove felt as if the ocean was both an escape and imprisonment. The high-rise apartment’s location above the water created a constant reminder of both potential freedom and deadly threat. Its height also removed Clove and her mother from a potential source of symbolic protection in the ocean itself. When Clove recalls how she swam back to shore after her father attempted to drown her, the water reaches the zenith of its symbolism, as the author contrasts both survival and the beginning of Clove’s separation from her mother’s narrative of events with the potential violence contained in its expanse.