Tragedy and Blame Theme Analysis

Throughout Past the Shallows, the Curren family copes with the deaths of beloved family members Mum, Uncle Nick, and Granddad. Harry, Miles and Joe are told that Mum died in a car accident and that Uncle Nick drowned on the same night. It is gradually implied, however, that Mum and Uncle Nick were having an affair, and that Dad has been lying about the night of the accident and the circumstances of Nick’s death. The losses of these characters and the secrets and blame associated with their deaths have varying effects on the rest of the family. The Curren brothers are grief-stricken, Aunty Jean is resentful, and Dad is tortured by the blame he places on Mum for cheating on him. Additionally, he is wracked with the guilt of tampering with Nick’s body at the scene of the car crash and lying about his brother-in-law’s fate, knowing that he did not actually drown. The dissolution of the Curren family as they cope with losing three of their loved ones suggests that assigning blame after a tragedy is destructive and unproductive, as it will only breed resentment and betrayal.

In reaction to the deaths of her sister, husband, and father, Aunty Jean spirals into a vicious cycle of bitterness and blaming others that leads to the destruction of her relationships with Dad, Harry, Miles, and Joe. After Uncle Nick’s death, Aunty Jean forces Dad to take out a loan in order to buy Nick’s share of the family boat, which puts a significant strain on their relationship. Although she does not know that Nick actually died in the crash with Mum, nor does she know the full extent of Dad’s involvement, she blames Dad anyway because she believes that he encouraged Nick to go out on the boat on the night that he allegedly drowned. This bitterness destroys the rapport between Aunty Jean and Dad to the point that she refuses to even enter the family home.

The resentment Aunty Jean feels for Dad in the wake of Uncle Nick’s death also spills over into her relationships with Harry, Miles, and Joe. After Granddad passes away and leaves his house to Joe, Aunty Jean contests the will and takes back the house to sell it, a betrayal that causes an unforgivable rift between her and the Curren brothers, who are sentimentally attached to their grandfather’s home. Although Granddad wanted Joe to have the house, Aunty Jean feels that Joe is stealing the property that she believes to be rightfully hers as Granddad’s daughter. Aunty Jean’s shift in character suggests that assigning blame in the midst of tragedy can devastate both the individual and the family.

Like Aunty Jean, Dad also experiences a profound change in character after the deaths of Mum and Uncle Nick. While Dad’s descent into violence is initially presented as a reaction to the loss of his wife and brother-in-law, it is eventually revealed that his self-blame surrounding the circumstances of their deaths is what fuels the rage that destroys his relationships with Harry, Miles, and Joe. Near the end of the novel, it is implied that Mum and Uncle Nick were having an illicit relationship, and that Harry (and possibly Joe) are actually Nick’s biological sons rather than Dad’s. Dad confesses to Miles that Mum was leaving him (with Nick, Harry, and Miles in the car) on the night of the accident, and that he “had to take [Nick] away” from the scene of the crash in order to prevent people from finding out about Mum’s infidelity. Dad’s full involvement in Nick and Mum’s deaths remains something of a mystery for his sons, as well as for the reader, clouded by the secrets that he has long kept from his family. In the context of Dad’s alcoholism-fueled abuse throughout the story, this revelation shows how grief, secrecy, and guilt form a destructive combination. In this case, Dad blames himself more than anyone else, but that blame still has devastating consequences.

Dad’s destructiveness culminates at the end of the novel when he pins the blame for Mum leaving on Harry and throws the young boy overboard from the fishing boat in a fit of rage. Harry drowns to death in the ocean as a result of Dad’s unbearable guilt, an action that epitomizes Dad’s desperate attempts to rid himself of self-blame but ultimately proves to be futile and deeply destructive. Whereas Aunty Jean destroys her relationships by focusing on blame, Dad literally destroys his own son.

While the dysfunction that plagues the Curren family initially appears to be rooted in grief over the deaths of Mum, Uncle Nick, and Granddad, the true insidious nature of the family’s dissolution becomes apparent as they begin to point fingers at one another. The gradual destruction of the relationships among Dad, Aunty Jean, and the Curren brothers reveals that hasty accusations in the face of tragedy are not just unhelpful, but also extremely harmful. Yet unlike other members of the Curren family, Miles and Joe maintain their sense of loyal solidarity by placing due responsibility on Dad as an oppressor, rather than allowing their struggles and grief to strain the close bond they share.