Rough Waters
by
Nan DeVincent-Hayes
Unpublished
OVERVIEW OF ROUGH WATERS
Rough Waters is a literary novel that examines a character's psychological and philosophical positions when faced with the most horrible occurrence to ever besiege an individual. The protagonist-Roxane Breck-must make a major choice in her life when she realizes she is partly to blame for the deaths of her husband, children, and sister, as well as the unborn baby of her best friend. This choice comes down to her wanting to go on living without loved ones, or to her wanting to end it all quickly.The book is filled with symbolism and irony. An example is Roxane's father and sister visiting her at Christmas after a ten-year absence in her life. She had disowned him when, as a child, she went to live with her aunt because her father raped and beat her after his wife died. Yet, this one Christmas, he and Roxanne's sister, Dani, visit Roxane unannounced. The father has come to ask Roxane for forgiveness and to let her know he is a recovering alcoholic. Roxane refuses to forgive him; so to put himself in her good graces, he offers to look at Roxane's ill-working furnace. It is his fiddling with the furnace that causes everyone's death. Ironically, then, he and Roxane are the only two survivors of the accident. One wants forgiveness for past sins for a peaceful death; the other wants to commit a future sin through a violent suicide. The father tries to help his daughter find the will to live but she despises him so much that she kicks him out. Her aunt takes her in, but this proves to be a trying relationship for both since Roxane and her aunt have inner resentments for each other. And while the aunt never exposes her inner feelings or resolves issues, Roxane wants to get everything out in the open before she takes her life. A three-way tug develops among the protagonist, the aunt, and the father. Conflict and tensions range high, and each ends up blaming the other for how their lives have turned out.
As much as Roxane wants to die by her own hands, guilt nags at her, forcing her to learn first if such an act goes against God . . . if there is a God . . . one who would take away her loved ones. She goes on a personal search for answers, seeking the solution to the ultimate question we have, the question that ties us all together as humans, the gnawing angst of not knowing who we are, where we come from, how we got here. Thus, readers, too, become a part of her journey and a companion in her search.
The book, then, focuses on the protagonist's compulsion to find answers for which questions aren't written and resolutions have yet to be found; it also examines the relationship of three conflicting individuals who eventually come to terms with their past, present and future, as well as with their places in their own actualities and in each others' lives. Closure isn't complete, pure, or even entirely satisfactory but what is salvageable is saved.
Thus, Rough Waters is an extension of each of us, a definition of whom we are in an existence that is mystical, abstract, and enigmatic; it is a story of each of us, as it manages to hone in on how we make decisions in life and then must live with them; how we find cause not to live, and yet how we counter that cause with reasons to push on anyway; how we relate and interrelate with others, and yet how we refuse to expose the very souls of our beings.In the end, however, the book gives hope through the little things in our lives in spite of all the ugliness in the big picture of living.
Because we are all faced with problems in life, Rough Waters serves as a voice for each of us. In this world, no one is free of life's curses, whether it be the death of a loved one, an illness, financial problems, mental health worries, or spiritual troubles; thus, this novel reflects our contemporary woes, and how one woman chooses to solve hers. Her choice is a poor one; but the hope lies in her having discovered this in time, and therefore pushes to go on in an existence that she doesn't understand but doesn't give up on in looking for answers. It is the promise of something better that keeps her going.
The story allows every human to identify with the character and her problems. The destruction of her loved ones is something we can all relate to, as is the rocky relationship with her aunt who she loves very much but feels is incapable of loving her back. All of us know how much it hurts to love someone who doesn't seem to reciprocate, doesn't behave demonstratively toward us. This is almost as painful as a death.
Thus, Rough Waters, with its complex and interwoven plot, touches each of us somewhere deep inside us. In the end, we come away liking the protagonist, and ourselves, in the process.
Synopsis of ROUGH WATERS; A Novel
This is a literary novel about a woman by a woman who often worries about the sensibility of living.
Summary: his is a psychological/philosophical story about a young woman who has everything in life but yet doesn't realize it, and so she strives for more, But a calamity topsy-turvies her world, and she must strive to keep her sanity in a world that has no answers and threatens her very existence, This story, then, is her search for the reason for living when no cause is evident; it is about her ability to cope when she has no reserve left for doing so.Major Characters:
ROXANE (Reid) BRECK
ProtagonistPainter,33: lives for her art at the cost of others. Her world revolves around painting, and when she loses this ability, she believes she's lost everything. CAMERON (Cam) BRECK
Age 45; married to Roxane; a devout father and husband who misjudges his wife's intentions and makes a decision that can never be rectified.KAITLIN (Katie) BRECK
Age 7; Roxane and Cam's precocious daughter who senses her mother's disenchantment and worries over her decisions.CORTLAND (Cortie) BRECK
Age 4; the baby of the Breck family.VICTOR REID
Age 61; Roxane's father who she's been estranged from for over 10 years, A former alcoholic, he surprises Roxane with a visit for the Christmas holidays, But Roxane, who was beat and raped by him, wants little to do with him. With good intentions, he tries to fix a cantankerous old furnace but his error has a tragic rebound.DANIELLE (Dani) REID
Roxane's sister: 39, has one intent and that is to get Roxane to forgive their father.SARA PENNINGTON
Age 50; Roxane's aunt who raised Roxane from childhood after learning that her brother-in-law (Victor Reid) was abusing her, Sara and Roxane have a misunderstanding that results in a vacuum in Roxane's life.WALTER PENNINGTON
Sara's husband, 58; he's fatherly towards Roxane who he treats as his daughter.DONNA WRIGHT
Roxane's best friend, 34: successful Black who regretfully heeds Roxane's advice.Story Elements:
Period: Christmas 1984 to Christmas 1985
Settings: OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND: Residence of Sara Penington and her family; Sara forces Roxane to move to here after accident.
DOVER, DELAWARE: Donna's place of residenceWILMINGTON, DELAWARE: Roxane's residence until her world falls apart and Sara takes her back with her to Ocean City.
SPAIN: Sara's family's cottage is located here which she normally visits once a year, But during Roxane's healing process, Sara takes Roxane to Spain.
END OF SYNOPSIS
Overview:
The story is about a young woman's struggle to find hope after losing her loved ones in an accident she blames herself for. It's also about discovering the true meaning of life and sharing that meaning with others. It's a story of learning to forgive and move ahead; of teaching others how to love in spite of all odds, and of finding deep within each of us our own true abilities and calling them up for the benefit of others. And, too, it is a story of struggles throughout where each adversity is overcome by something as simple as love but as complicated as grasping it.
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