Summary Of Floating By Karen Brennan

“Floating”
By Karen Brennan “But no one owns anyone or owes anyone anything” (Brennan 304). In the story “Floating,” Karen Brennan uses the themes of regret, rejection, guilt and death, to demonstrate how trauma in a relationship effects both sides differently. She illustrates the difference between herself and her husband, telling the story of what she feels and what her husband feels. In the beginning a sense of rejection is presented, this is shown when Karen quotes, “I woke up and heard a tiny sound coming from the back of the house. It was a baby….she had been crying for two days straight and had survived,” (Brennan 302). Reading this quote the reader can make the assumption that there is a sense of rejection
“How do we get this way? I was a perfectly ordinary girl… I married a nice responsible man who loved me. He gave me my first umbrella,” (303). Regret was used to introduce the deep dysfunction of their marriage, that it even made the narrator question her past and the marriage itself, “he gave me my first umbrella.’’ The narrator reminisces or revisits the first time she ever felt safe, sheltered by someone else other than her immediate family. Karen relates shelter to an umbrella, because in a sense, an umbrella protects our body from the rain. The umbrella is also significant, because it leaves the audience questioning- is that all the husband was able to provide? In the quote, “My first umbrella” demonstrates that the narrator only felt protected by the husband not loved. “How do we get this way? I was a perfectly ordinary girl” portrays a feeling of regret to the reader. The narrator uses this to show how she had changed and could not believe it herself almost as if she shocked herself with her change. She asks a rhetorical question “How do we get this way?” She cannot convey an answer to; however allows the reader to find a solution. This gives rise to a deeper meaning to the quote. “I was a perfectly ordinary girl” the word was in her sentence shows that she once was perfect and now she has change and she regrets it. In the husband’s
“She had all the plumpness of a baby; dimpled knees and folds around the wrists; pale baby skin,” (302). The narrator indicates that the baby skin was pale. From the context clues, the reader could imply that the baby could be lifeless or suffering from the strain of death. However the narrator brings the attention to the reader that the baby had survived. She quotes, “she had survived.” This presents the reader with the evidence that the baby is no longer alive and it is in fact dead. The word had shows the reader that the baby was alive at a point in time, but in that instant the baby is dead. Karen Brennan shows how death plays a role in the story. She manipulates the sentence debating a sense of hope for the life of the baby, but then she abruptly changes the tone of the story using descriptive passages of the baby taking away any previous hope that the child lived. The death of the baby was so traumatic that even the narrator could not shake the restraint of disparity, being forced to remember the baby as the time progresses. In addition, the death of the baby could stimulate on the husband’s negative attitude towards his wife, “I wish I had the nerve to go outside, I tell him. He grunts as if nothing was out of the ordinary,” (303). The narrator draws a picture of the