The Testing

As a literary symbol, water is often associated with rebirth, cleansing, and healing. Water is essential to physical survival, is used to clean away dirt and corruption, and is used to wash wounds. Water is also present in birth in the form of amniotic fluid.

In The Testing, however, much of the water is corrupted, dirty, and poisonous. It must be tested and chemically altered before it is safe to ingest—and even then, it often does not have the pure, clean taste typically associated with water. The corrupted water in The Testing complicates the common literary symbolism by portraying this source of life as something nearly ruined by the actions of powerful people.

Despite its contamination, water remains an urgent matter for Cia and Tomas. The human body can go some time without food; depending on one’s starting body weight, a human can survive without eating for weeks or months. The human body cannot function without water for more than three days, and death is likely between 8-21 days without water.

The balance between the need for water and the dangerous condition of the available water make this symbol relevant throughout the narrative. There are two occasions when water is clean but remains unsafe. The first is the oasis Cia and Tomas find. Cia describes it as “[t]he perfect oval the grass grows in. The shimmer of a clear, clean, uncontaminated pond that rests in the center. Two trees filled with healthy leaves stand guard on either side” (167). She realizes this is manmade and immediately suspects it. There have been no uncomplicated gifts from the Testing officials. Ultimately, she is right as the oasis is rigged with explosives that detonate at the pressure of a person or object entering the grove.

Later, Cia and Tomas cross a river on a bridge rising high above it and which began miles before the water becomes visible. Cia recognizes this is a test—the water is clean and purified, but the candidates would have to backtrack several miles to access it. They are not desperate enough to try this and are, Cia explains, “rewarded at the end of the bridge with a less than sparkling but, according to my tests, drinkable pond” (242). Water, throughout the novel, is a source of constant tension, complicated by the interference of mankind.