We are One

In most ways, On Such a Full Sea is not very experimental in its structure. While it takes leaps with the actions of its chararacters in this imagined future, the plot moves fairly chronologically, revealing details slowly as we follow the main character, Fan's, journey.

As I mentioned in my first post, the use of the first person plural narrator is the most unusual aspect of the narration. 

The "we" chapters fluctuate between focusing on the events that unfold in B-Mor as a result of Fan's departure and describing the events of Fan's journey. This fluctuation between chapters is a bit jarring, or at least it was for me, at the beginning of the novel, as it's clear that the "we" knows so much more about Fan's journey than we do at the beginning of the novel. Without knowing all of the information about Fan's experiences, the reactions of the residents of B-Mor seem disproportionate to one young woman leaving the confines of the city. 

As the book moves on, however, and we learn more about what Fan has experienced (becoming almost as knowledgeable as the "we" narrator), the shift between the two kinds of chapters stops, and instead the two separate stories become united within chapters, shifting back in forth from one paragraph to the next now.

This shift in the narrative structure makes the book move more quickly, as though it's picking up speed as it goes downhill toward the book's resolution and the culmination of Fan's and the residents of B-Mor's experiences.

I've finally come to terms with the "we" narrator, in fact appreciating how it speaks for the group reaction to Fan's experiences. As Lee writes, "It turns out we are one, if not ever how we expected" (338). The unity of the experience for B-Mor residents is clarified through the use of the "we," who recognizes that "We have lashed ourselves together, we are cheek by jowl but now in an entirely different way, yet we can't help but murmur the question that is surfacing in all our eyes: so who are we now?" (357).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Fan's departure gives them hope and "none of us can resist such hopeful flashes, which are, in the end, what lights our way through this ever-dimming world" (355).

I found this quote incredibly powerful given the dark events of the past week, and especially fitting given that it is the coming together of so many people in France that has created such a powerful and positive reaction, a "hopeful flash," to counter such violent actions.

This next part is unrelated to the rest of my post, but I wanted to share another line from the section I just read, which reads like poetry to me. It describes Oliver, Fan's long-lost brother, a man who is coming to terms with his wife's affair but trying not to cry:
"It was then that Oliver got very quiet, not shedding tears but shuddering very finely, as if he were earthen inside and loosely caked and just about to shear." (370)