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Sophie has a recurring dream in which a giant wave looms over her, ready to crash upon her, yet she always wakes up just in time before she’s crushed. “The Wave” of Sophie’s dream represents a tragedy from Sophie’s past: her parents’ death at sea. Though Sophie seems to have blocked this memory from her conscious mind, it nonetheless haunts her in her dreams, disguised as the symbol of The Wave. If Sophie faces an enemy in The Wanderer, it’s this wave which won’t leave her alone—the call of a painful past which she’s forgotten but cannot break free from. Realizing what The Wave means for her—recognizing that her original parents are no longer with her, and thereby owning the truth of her own history—is the hurdle which Sophie must overcome in her journey across the ocean. Though she might not know it in the beginning, there’s a reason why she sets out upon the sea: to uncover the truth of her past.
The Wave Quotes in The Wanderer
The The Wanderer quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Wave. 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:
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I. Preparations
Quotes
And what I wanted to do was go on and on, across the sea, alone with the water and the wind and the birds, but some said I was too young and the sea was a dangerous temptress, and at night I dreamed a terrible dream. A wall of water, towering, black, crept up behind me and hovered over me and then down, down it came, but always I awoke before the water covered me, and always I felt as if I were floating when I woke up.
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V. Wind and Waves
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I was going overboard; I was sure of it. Underwater forever, twisting and turning, scrunched in a little ball. Was this the ocean? Was I over the side and in the sea? Was I four years old? In my head, a child’s voice was screaming, “Mommy! Daddy!”
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It seems a hundred years ago that we were lobstering and clamming on Grand Manan and trekking around Wood Island, and it seems a hundred years ago that we were eager to get under way, oblivious to what lay in wait for us. I feel as if I have to start to love sailing again, because I don’t love it now. I just want to get to Bompie and forget about the ocean for a while.
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I feel as if there were things inside me that were safely tucked away, sort of like the bilge down there, hidden under the floorboards of The Wanderer. But it feels as if the boards were blown off by The Wave and things are floating around and I don’t know where to put them.
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And I keep thinking about the wave dream I used to have. What seems especially eerie is that the wave in all of those dreams was The Wave—exactly the same: the same height, the same shape. The only difference is that the wave in my dreams was black, and this one was white. . . .
I can’t get rid of the feeling that the waves of my dreams were all pointing to The Wave that got us on the ocean.
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VI. Land
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I reached across the bed and touched her hand. “Sophie,” I said. “Maybe that’s not Bompie’s story. Maybe that’s your story.”
Bompie whispered, “Sophie, he’s right. That’s your story, honey.”
Sophie stared at me and then at Bompie. She looked so scared and so little sitting there beside Bompie. And then she put her head down on Bompie’s chest and she cried and cried and cried.
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Get the entire The Wanderer LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Wave Symbol Timeline in The Wanderer
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Wave appears in The Wanderer. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
I. Preparations
...learning how to sail. Sophie then describes a nightmare she’d have of a towering black wave creeping up on her, nearly crushing her, but she always woke up just in time....
(full context)
II. Shakedown
...get back to work to steering the boat: the wind had picked up and the waves started to swell.
(full context)
IV. Under Way
...her recurring dream about “The Wave” happened again the night before. She says that the wave, as usual, rose up very high above her, “a huge black wall of water,” and...
(full context)
...isn’t sure. The little kid laid down on a blanket and fell asleep, and a wave of water started pouring over the little kid. Before the little kid was swept away,...
(full context)
V. Wind and Waves
37. Wind.Sophie writes about the violent wind and waves the crew is currently experiencing. She says that the waves are incredibly high—she even estimates...
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...that the crew has lashed down every loose object on The Wanderer, and that the waves made it seem like she’s riding a roller coaster, but now the waves are much...
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...force-ten gale, the winds blowing at fifty knots an hour. She writes that the wall-like waves are pounding day and knight, and about every 20 minutes a wave fills the cockpit....
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...next two journal entries, she describes her and the crew’s encounter with a nearly fatal wave. Sophie says she was stationed on lookout, with Uncle Dock in the cockpit and Cody...
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50. The Wave. Sophie says that the wave, which she calls “The Wave,” like the one that haunts her in her dreams, had...
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...a new entry, that the crew is afraid to sleep—they’re afraid that the nearly fatal wave will return. She also compares her encounter with the wave to being born—in her mother’s...
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...says that it’s frightening to be on lookout now, after her encounter with the giant wave. She also mentions that it seems like it’s been a hundred years since they were...
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...also says that Uncle Stew seems calmer and nicer, even now, after the nearly fatal wave, when there are so many things he could be worrying about. Stew even gets a...
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...thinking about the dream of The Wave that she always has. She says that the wave of her dreams was exactly the same height and shape of the wave that happened...
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VI. Land
...little kids, but that was actually her uncles’ story. Further, she said the nearly fatal wave she encountered was black (like “The Wave” of her dreams), but it was actually white.
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...a drawing for Sophie of her up in the bosun’s chair, swinging out over the waves. Sophie says she’s very touched by the gift, and wasn’t expecting one.
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