Water is a recurring symbol in the novel and represents an array of feelings and emotions, depending on the moment. These include fear, comfort, confidence, desperation, and love. Near the beginning of the novel, the family goes to a lake to swim. The narrator is afraid of water, as prior, he had a scary incident at the public pool where he had to be taken out of the water by a lifeguard. When Paps lets him go in the lake, the narrator teaches himself how to push upward to the surface out of necessity. When the youngest boy makes it up, he views everything around him as “sparkling and magnificent” (23). Now that he can navigate water, his world has broadened.

When Ma is thinking of leaving Paps and brings them to a park near a river, the boys sit on a bridge and dangle their legs over the side, flaunting the possibility of falling and drowning, or getting hit by a car. They then go back down to the river and sleep in a canoe, feeling the water lazily lap against the side until they are lulled to sleep. Here, water becomes a comfort.