The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy |
The Water Is Wide gets its title from a British folk song that describes a vast body of water separating two peoples. The water is difficult to cross without a boat, or someone acting as a bridge to bring the two groups together. The poem resonated with author Pat Conroy, who spent a year during the Civil Rights era teaching Gullah children, descendants of African-American slaves, on an island off the coast of South Carolina. His book is a fictionalized account of his experience, with the original Daufuskie Island dubbed Yamacraw, where he commuted to work by boat.
The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy
The families on Yamacraw are very superstitious, which Conroy finds quite amusing. He particularly mentions a former teacher at the school named Miss Glover, who is a practitioner of voodooism. He promises to relate some stories later in the book, but apparently forgets to include any, leaving the reader not a little disappointed.
On the other hand, Ezra Bennington is a white Deputy Superintendent who also keeps the children in a never-ending cycle of ignorance and poverty by his failure to understand them. He appears to be a likeable man that cares, but Conroy reveals his true feelings, which is that he doesn't much care at all. The educational dysfunction of the school is promulgated by its lack of resources and inability to institute real change, but also by Brown and Bennington.
Gullah Culture on Yamacraw Island
The missing component for true educational reform would be before the children ever get to school--by their parents. However, parenting skills that foster healthy early childhood development are sorely lacking on the island. According to the American Psychological Association, "the notion that early attention to physical and psychological development can improve cognitive ability" is supported by research done by psychologists and the former U.S. Surgeon General Julius Richmond. In truth, babies born in emotionally healthy families, surrounded by books and rich experiences, are nurtured intellectually. A child from an enriched environment, ready for kindergarten, has already mastered many concepts, leaving a sad comparison to the children of Yamacraw.
Conroy is originally motivated by white guilt, but it morphs through the school year into a genuine concern for the students. He also admits his youthful idealism and outrage against self-righteous people who stand in the way of others' civil rights. He would be happy to know that today Daufuskie Island has come of age, sporting golf resorts and having the Gullah residential section designated as a federal Historical District. The school still has only two classrooms, but it is a nicely rebuilt facility with a fancy school bus.
Daufuskie Island School Bus Today photo by David Burn |
At the end of the school year and the book, Conroy resigns himself to the fact that he didn't "change the quality of their lives significantly or alter the inexorable fact that they were imprisoned by the very circumstance of their birth." Despite his best efforts, he believes his students probably didn't glean much from him, but at least he tried to do something constructive. However, to the reader he was successful because he extended genuine love towards the children, and there is no way to measure that important ingredient.
The Water Is Wide portrays a slice of American history concerning racism during the Jim Crow era. South Carolina struggled with its legacy of slavery even 100 years after the Civil War ended, and Yamacraw Island depicted it well. The story is a well written, enlightening read for anyone who desires to understand the Old South and its lingering culture.
Sources:
American Psychological Association, Early Intervention Can Improve Low-Income Children's Cognitive Skills and Academic Achievement, April 22, 2004, www.apa.org.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Daufuskie Island Historic District, June 2, 1982, http://www.nps.gov/.
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