Dec 23, 2009

The Wave | Summary

Although O’Flaherty does not name the setting of his story ‘‘The Wave,’’ it’s almost certainly set somewhere on the Aran Islands. The story begins with the description of an imposing cliff, two hunT dred feet high, that sits facing the sea. It is semicircular, with a twenty foot high cavern at its base, a concave area that ‘‘the sea had eaten up . . . during thousands of years of battle.’’

It is not quite high tide as the story opens. The sea is angry, and waves come ‘‘towering into the cove’’ formed by the cliff and the two reefs at each end of its...