When Nick is sentenced to counseling and journaling after abusing his girlfriend, Caitlin, he doesn't think he deserves a punishment. He says Caitlin is lying and rationalizes to himself that he didn't really hit her—he just slapped her. During his first journal entries, Nick is still bitter over what happened and eager to blame it on other people. He sees his court-ordered courses not as a way for him to improve himself but merely as a means to win Caitlin back. However, as Nick explores his past thoughts and actions through journaling, he becomes more self-aware of the pain he is responsible for. This realization comes to a head when Nick witnesses Leo’s abuse of Neysa. Seeing another toxic and abusive relationship from the perspective of an outsider offers Nick unsettling insight into how wrong his own behavior toward Caitlin was. Eventually, he begins to take therapy more seriously, abandoning his quest to get back together with Caitlin and sincerely apologizing for his treatment of her. With the help of his course instructor, Mario, Nick learns that he must take responsibility for the consequences of his actions if he wants to live a better life and be a better person. This realization gives Nick the courage to finally stand up to his father and reconcile with Tom.

Nick is a closed-off individual at the beginning of the novel, but through therapy, he eventually learns that honest communication is an essential part of being a better person and a better man. Though he is relatively popular and has close friends like Tom, Nick has never felt comfortable opening up about the difficulties he faced at home and makes an effort to conceal—even from his best friend—the abuse he suffers at the hands of his father. As Nick reflects on his actions and begins to truly engage with  Mario’s lessons, he comes to realize that internalizing and bottling up his feelings about his father was not an effective coping mechanism, as it led him to direct his inner pain and rage toward Caitlin. When Nick first attends group therapy, he is unwilling to talk about or share his emotions, instead telling the group that he and his father have a normal relationship. However, by the end of the novel, Nick is able to be vulnerable with Mario and the rest of the group, openly discussing his father’s abuse and how deeply insecure it made him feel. Having finally realized the importance of communication, Nick goes home after this session and confronts his abusive father for the first time, forcefully ordering him not to hit him again. In the end, it is through honest communication that Nick is able to begin to make amends, apologizing sincerely to Caitlin and attempting to repair his relationship with Tom. After finally learning about Nick’s abusive home life, Tom is able to better understand Nick’s abusive behavior toward Caitlin, and by the end of the novel, Tom is willing to begin to reconcile with Nick.

Abuse is the main topic of the Breathing Underwater , and the novel explores not only how abuse can be inherited but also how a tradition of abuse can be broken. Early on, we learn that Nick is abused by his father, the only remaining parent he has. When Mr. Andreas thinks Nick has done anything wrong, he's quick to hit him and berate him—insisting that Nick is a loser and a failure. In the opening scene, Mr. Andreas digs his hands into Nick's back hard enough to draw blood right in the...