Previous
Blueback
While he was alive, Abel Jackson’s father loved the ocean. He spent so much time in the water that people often joked that he seemed more fish than human. He worked as a pearl diver until he died from a tiger shark attack when Abel was two years old, and his body was lost in the sea. Although Abel’s father is dead and his name is never revealed in the novel, he has a strong presence throughout the story. He lives on through Dora’s stories about him and through Abel, who shares his father’s looks and love for the sea. Additionally, the peppermint tree by the Jacksons’ house represents Abel’s father, whose memory is kept alive by Longboat Bay itself. The peppermint tree serves as a shrine to Abel’s father, and Dora often sits with the tree to remember her late husband. Abel also embraces the tree at different points in his life, connecting with his father through nature.
Abel’s Father Quotes in Blueback
The Blueback quotes below are all either spoken by Abel’s Father or refer to Abel’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
As well as wondering what fish thought, Abel also wondered what dead people thought. Both things were mysteries; they tied his mind up in knots but he never gave up wondering.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
Those men didn’t understand that a place isn’t just a property. They didn’t see that Longboat Bay was a life to his mother, a friend. And maybe a husband to her as well.
Chapter 10
Quotes
If Blueback could speak, thought Abel, he could tell him about his father. All the secrets of the sea would be there waiting for him.
Chapter 13
Quotes
She walked down to the shore to see a strange jumble of white stumps on the beach. As she got close she saw they were whale bones, thousands and thousands of them all along the bay. They stood like posts and broken teeth and tombstones where the storm had exposed them. Dora Jackson stepped over and under and around them. It was like walking through a graveyard. These bones had lain here under the sand of Longboat Bay for a century or more. She’d walked over them for forty years without knowing. It was a terrible feeling having history unearth itself so suddenly.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14
Quotes
One afternoon [Abel] walked up past the orchard to the peppermint tree and stood there a long time. He thought about his father and felt close to his memory there. He put his cheek against the rough bark the way he had as a boy and hugged the thick trunk.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16
Quotes
Abel and Stella went back to being scientists […] But they never discovered the secret of the sea. Abel figured his mother knew all the secrets by now and his father before her. He guessed that Mad Macka might have a few ideas too and that his own time would come eventually. In the meantime he let the sea be itself.
Get the entire Blueback LitChart as a printable PDF.
Abel’s Father Quotes in Blueback
The Blueback quotes below are all either spoken by Abel’s Father or refer to Abel’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
As well as wondering what fish thought, Abel also wondered what dead people thought. Both things were mysteries; they tied his mind up in knots but he never gave up wondering.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
Those men didn’t understand that a place isn’t just a property. They didn’t see that Longboat Bay was a life to his mother, a friend. And maybe a husband to her as well.
Chapter 10
Quotes
If Blueback could speak, thought Abel, he could tell him about his father. All the secrets of the sea would be there waiting for him.
Chapter 13
Quotes
She walked down to the shore to see a strange jumble of white stumps on the beach. As she got close she saw they were whale bones, thousands and thousands of them all along the bay. They stood like posts and broken teeth and tombstones where the storm had exposed them. Dora Jackson stepped over and under and around them. It was like walking through a graveyard. These bones had lain here under the sand of Longboat Bay for a century or more. She’d walked over them for forty years without knowing. It was a terrible feeling having history unearth itself so suddenly.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14
Quotes
One afternoon [Abel] walked up past the orchard to the peppermint tree and stood there a long time. He thought about his father and felt close to his memory there. He put his cheek against the rough bark the way he had as a boy and hugged the thick trunk.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16
Quotes
Abel and Stella went back to being scientists […] But they never discovered the secret of the sea. Abel figured his mother knew all the secrets by now and his father before her. He guessed that Mad Macka might have a few ideas too and that his own time would come eventually. In the meantime he let the sea be itself.
