Eventually All Water Runs Dry

First of I want to give props to Noria for sticking up for herself, when Niiramo was being an ignoramus, you go girl! p.100 Obviously Niiramo’s attitude is based on the fact that Noria is a girl, and that doesn’t go with tradition. But oh well, he’ll just have to get over it,

Itaranta builds up the suspense, by having Noria say things like “It’s something I didn’t pay attention to then, but i would look back on later” Making me want to know exactly whats he’s talking about drawing me in and getting me hooked.

Knowing what I know about Noria’s fathers death it makes sense why she constantly refers to the connection between water and death: “We are children of water and water is death’s close companion'” p.113 Just as the water runs dry, eventually life does the same. When Noria’s father’s water runs dry he has become one with the earth. I can’t even imagine how Noria must feel. Her world has gone upside down, she is so young, and must face the death of her father who has become her world since her mother left. Even amongst all the people how could she not feel alone?

I completely feel for Noria when she talks about how her father’s body holds “mere matter… and he no longer belongs to it more than light belongs to a faded flower that once made it grow.” When looking at the deceased you see their body, and like to think that they are there with you watching over but can you really be sure? How would we know. They are no longer there, it is just their body void of everything, merely there for decoration. Although she wants to believe her father is there she knows he isn’t that his spirit is gone and his body remains as unmoving, and stiff as the coffin he lays in. This was such a shocking turn. This chapter just makes me think about death, and makes me feel sorrowful. Needless to say the reader can feel Noria’s pain in these pages.