Average Waves in Unprotected Waters Themes

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Average Waves in Unprotected Waters | Themes

Memory
Memory plays an important role in almost all of Tyler’s fiction. In ‘‘Average Waves in Unprotected Waters,’’ memory is a disconnecting as well as a connecting force, both allowing characters to make discoveries about themselves and serving as a means of alienation. The first acknowledgment of memory, or lack of memory, occurs when Mrs. Puckett gives Bet cookies for Arnold. The boy passes the older woman without acknowledging her. He does not seem to know her or have a memory of her. Bet has worried over Arnold’s lack of memory for objects, but his inability to...

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