Water Symbol Analysis

Water symbolizes the Taoist concepts central to the novel, specifically the idea of Tao (“Way”), and wu wei (“effortless action”). Tao is a metaphysical concept that refers to the natural balance of the universe, as well as the path all living beings must take to act in accordance with that natural balance. In The Lathe of Heaven, water represents this collective balance. In the novel’s opening scene, for example, the jellyfish swims through “the moon-driven sea,” which alludes to the way the moon exerts a force on the ocean that results in the rise and fall of the tide. Just as the Tao compels the universe to exist in a state of balance, the rising and falling motion of the sea exerts a natural rhythm on itself and everything that exists within it. The rising and falling motion of the sea also embodies the concept of wu wei, or effortless action. The sea doesn’t think consciously about its movement or anguish over which direction it will go next: “moon-driven,” it merely follows the rhythmic movement the gravitational pull of the moon compels it to follow.

The absence of water is significant, too. If the presence and movement of water symbolizes the natural balance of the universe and the unconscious, effortless actions one must practice to act in accordance with this natural balance, then the absence of water symbolizes a disruption of this natural balance, as well as the conscious, deliberate actions that create this disruption. Near the end of the novel, Heather and Orr are on their way to dinner when the world around them begins to collapse in on itself, which is an indicator that Haber’s first effective dream has begun to go horribly wrong.  One of the first signs of impending doom is the dire state of the river, which has suddenly and inexplicably run dry. Drained of its water, the riverbed is now “cracked and oozing,” and “full of grease and bones and lost tools and dying fish.” Vessels lay shipwrecked against the docks. Where water, vessels, and fish once flowed as one, there now exists only the filth, death, and suffering of disparate objects. Haber’s effective dream thus represents his final (and most dramatic) attempt to exert complete control over reality through deliberate action. Haber’s attempt to exert power over the collective world disrupts the universe’s natural balance and causes a domino effect of chaos. Here, the absence of water reflects the suffering and disorder that arises when the practice of deliberate action throws the universe out of balance.