Jan 2, 2010

The Wave | Themes

Permanence
What could be more permanent than a towering cliff? Expressions such as ‘‘solid as the rock of Gibraltar’’ seek to compare human endeavors to the enduring solidity of just such a cliff. Yet, in ‘‘The Wave,’’ we see that this monstrous edifice, two hundred feet high, may last a long while, but—in the end—it falls in upon itself. Nothing, this story seems to suggest, is truly permanent.

Time
Time changes everything. The sea could not have caused the cliff to fall in upon itself in a day or a month or a year—it took...