Daughter of the Deep

“I start to cry. I’m shaking with anger. Why is it that I can keep myself together when thinking about Dev, but I break down at the thought of his girlfriend dying? What is wrong with me?”

After Ana sees her school tragically destroyed and her brother and only remaining family member dead, she holds herself together out of necessity. However, when Ana thinks about Amelia, her house captain and her brother’s girlfriend, who is likely also now dead, she finally begins to cry. She thinks about the future that Amelia has lost, and this is a future that might have eventually been Ana’s too, since Ana is also in Dolphin House. When Ana breaks down at Amelia’s death but not Dev’s, she thinks there is something wrong with her because she should feel more grief at the death of her own family member. But the loss of her family is too tragic, too threatening to Ana’s ability to move forward in this dangerous time. It is safer to mourn Amelia, because while Amelia’s loss is horrific, it does not have the same power to prevent Ana from surviving the danger she is in as mourning her brother’s death might.

“The Varuna is the biggest yacht in the harbor by far. I love that it’s named after the Hindu sea god.”

Ana thinks this when she and the other Harding-Pencroft freshmen finally arrive at the ship that they were supposed to take to their weekend trials, the ship that is now the only remaining part of HP Academy. Ana loves her school and the ocean, and she is proud that the Varuna is the largest ship in the yard because it represents her school’s connection to the sea, as well as its influence in the larger world. She is also proud that the ship is named after the Hindu sea god because it connects to her own Indian heritage, showing how she can embrace all parts of herself (her heritage, her love for the sea) together.

“Two of the main characters in The Mysterious Island were Harding and Pencroft, men with the same surnames as the founders of our school. At the time I’d thought, Okay, that’s a little weird. Later in the book, when the crazy sci-fi submarine commander Captain Nemo revealed that his real name was Prince Dakkar, I admit I got a shiver down my back. But the books were just fiction.”

Before Ana and her classmates began their first year at HP Academy in eighth grade, they read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. When Ana read these books, she notices a number of similarities between the novels and real life, including the last name she shares with Captain Nemo. At the time she got a strange feeling, foreshadowing the secrets she will later learn about HP Academy and Jules Verne. This quote appears just after Hewett reveals a Leyden gun to the HP prefects, telling them that Jules Verne “reported a few things correctly,” although the students do not yet know the full truth. The dramatic irony builds when Ana thinks, “but the books were just fiction,” since at this point the reader might have figured out that in the world of this novel, they are very much not fiction.

“Prefect Romero, the impossible is merely the possible for which we don’t yet know the science.”

After Dr. Hewett has revealed the Leyden guns to the students and explains their use, Tia Romero, the prefect of House Cephalopod, insists that they should not be possible. This quote is Hewett’s response to Tia, but it speaks to a larger theme of Riordan’s novel—that all sorts of technology and science, even those that seem fantastical, retrofuturistic, or even futuristic, are within our grasp if only we can discover the science to create it. The implication in the word “yet” is an optimistic attitude toward technology that is common in science fiction. It is notable that Tia is the one to question the reality of the Leyden guns: As prefect of House Cephalopod, she is an expert at engineering and technology, so for her to doubt an invention only enhances the level of advancement that the Leyden guns represent.

“[T]he last thing I want is to be confined in a small room belowdecks, attached to a bunch of monitors. I need open air and the sea. I need to watch Socrates swimming alongside our boat, happily chattering at me. After everything else that has happened today, my abduction has left me trembling with shock, terror, shame, and rage. Sea-snake venom isn’t the only poison I’m trying to flush out of my system.”

This passage appears shortly after Ana returns to the Varuna, rescued from her abduction by the LI students. When Ana thinks that sea-snake venom is not the only poison she needs to remove from her system, she is talking about the many emotions she feels in the wake of not only her abduction, but also the destruction of her school and apparent death of her brother. Mental safety and recovery are just as vital to Ana’s health as her physical recovery, and she has a very clear idea of what that entails. Her connection to the ocean and to animals like Socrates, the happiness that this gives her, will be an outlet for Ana to relieve some of the tension built up in her system.

“I know the plot of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But now it seems more like a prophecy…one that predicts an apocalypse. I don’t like apocalypses.”

Now that Dr. Hewett has explained that Verne’s books are novelizations of the truth, Ana must rethink how she views these books. She is familiar with them, having read them in preparation for her first year at HP Academy, but she thought of them only as stuffy Victorian science fiction novels. Now, she must take their plots more seriously, despite how dark they are at times. This does not bode well for her own future, especially given the recent tragic loss of her entire school, as well as Dev. Ana does not want more tragedy in her life, and so she needs to return to these novels to glean more information to prepare herself for her future.

“‘And Captain Nemo…’ I say. ‘That wasn’t his real name. It was Prince Dakkar. An Indian noble. From Bundelkhand.’

‘Yes, Miss Dakkar,’ Hewett agrees. ‘As of today, you are his only surviving direct descendent. This makes you quite literally the most important person in the world.’”

Not only does Ana’s world change when Hewett reveals the truth of Verne’s novels, but her own identity changes too. What she previously believed to be an eerie coincidence, sharing a last name with Captain Nemo, is in fact a familial relationship. Although this knowledge adds a new member to Ana’s family, it also highlights how alone she is in the world. She is both the only person left alive in her family (as far as she knows at this point) and the only person alive with a direct connection to Captain Nemo, who is clearly of great importance to Harding-Pencroft Academy and the Land Institute. As Ana will later find out, this importance is due to her ability, through her DNA, to unlock Nemo’s incredible technology.

“‘I call for a vote,’ Gem announces. ‘I say we give Ana command. We follow her orders, work together, and find this base. Then we make Land Institute pay for what they’ve done. All in favor?’” 

When Hewett falls into a coma, the students need a new leader. Ana seems a natural choice, and Gem, in support of his friend, puts it to an official vote. The other students have great confidence in Ana, despite how she doubts herself, because the vote is unanimous. However, Ana is reluctant to take power. She is afraid and unprepared, and she feels like she does not necessarily deserve Nemo’s legacy: Command is not a position to be taken lightly; it requires a great deal of personal responsibility, and it requires skill more than lineage. Ana becomes a good commander because she desires to make a difference in the lives of others.

“Socrates and I go for a quick dive. Fifteen feet under, we dance together. I hold his flippers and continue my year-long campaign to teach him the Hokey Pokey. Humming through my breather, I lead him through the moves. You put your right flipper in, you put your right flipper out. Socrates clearly doesn’t understand this strange human ritual, but judging from his laughing face, he finds it (and me) very amusing.”

Human-animal relationships are strong in Daughter of the Deep. Socrates’s friendship with Ana first shows up in Chapter 1, and it continues throughout the entire novel. This scene is representative of their relationship, showing how Ana and Socrates can rely on each other for support and amusement. Here, Ana takes a brief break from her responsibilities as acting captain, allowing herself a little bit of fun as a break from her grief. Death and tragedy do not have to mean a constant state of grief. Socrates helps Ana maintain a little bit of cheer and normalcy with her friends (including animals friends), no matter the circumstances.

“I never got to say good-bye to my parents. Nor properly. They said they were going off on another expedition and they’d be back in a month or so. They told me to be good. I let them leave with nothing but a hug, a kiss, and a roll of my eyes. Of course I’ll be good. You guys should worry about Dev! My mom said, We’ll be back before you know it. And I believed her. They always came back.”

A major regret for Ana is that she did not get to say goodbye to her parents before they died. This has left her without proper closure for the past two years, and it is not until the very end of the novel that she will be able to give her parents a proper send-off. With this passage Riordan shows the importance of not taking one’s family or parents for granted since they are not guaranteed to be around forever. This is a lesson most people do not learn until they are older or have faced tragedy themselves. The end of this quote shows the broken promises that any parent makes to their child when they leave or die. Parents are supposed to come back, but that is not always possible.

“My dear, dying is nothing to be embarrassed about. It happens to everyone.”

In this quote, Ana’s mother explains death in plain terms as a normal part of life. Ana’s mother does not shame her for her fear or embarrassment but gently tries to reassure Ana. Despite the morbid topic of conversation, this is a touching moment that Ana remembers in her dream, although when she awakes, she will feel miserable that all she has of touching moments with her parents are memories.

“Given the choice between destruction or lasagna, I will choose lasagna every time.”

This is an amusing way to open a chapter directly after another that concluded with the students narrowly avoiding destruction by defeating the challenge to enter Lincoln Base. Daughter of the Deep might deal with heavy themes like death and responsibility, but the main characters are still optimistic (and hungry) teenagers. Thus, this quote fits their overall personalities. This quote also foreshadows the welcome that the HP freshmen will receive when they actually land at Lincoln Base. Even though the base has a deadly defense system powered by alt-tech, the keepers of the base still plan to welcome their guests with a warm, homey meal, giving them a brief reprieve from the stress of maintaining their own ship.

“When I explain how my brother died, I feel like I’m collecting ashes from his funeral pyre, clawing through the hot cinders of his life with my bare hands.”

After the HP freshmen arrive at Lincoln Base, Ana needs to explain to Ophelia and Luca what happened to HP Academy. Dev’s death is still fresh, however, and recounting it causes Ana terrible grief: Clawing through ashes is a fruitless endeavor, just as recounting Dev’s death is unable to actually bring him back. The entire process burns her emotionally, just like it would burn her physically to feel hot cinders.

“During World War II, Land Institute decided they could ‘improve’ the world by leaking some of Nemo’s knowledge to help along the Manhattan Project. They still maintain they did a good thing, even though the subsequent Cold War arms race came close to destroying the world half a dozen times.”

Here, Ophelia explains some of the effects Nemo’s advanced alt-tech has had on the world, especially when the Land Institute was irresponsible in disseminating the information. This speaks to how the Land Institute differs from Harding-Pencroft Academy in its relationship with Nemo and his technology. The two schools are opposed when it comes to how to use alt-tech, with HP Academy favoring a more restrictive but safer approach and the Land Institute favoring an approach that uses technology to influence the larger world, no matter the cost. By leaking Nemo’s technology to the Manhattan Project, which was the US-led development of nuclear weapons during World War II, the Land Institute shows that it is willing to risk the lives of a huge number of people in order to gain power. Riordan condemns this approach to technology by making it characteristic of the Land Institute, which is one of the major antagonists in the novel.

“When you dream of drowning, there’s only one thing to do: get in the water as soon as possible.”

This quote occurs shortly after Ana dreams of being trapped in HP Academy with Dev as it slides into the ocean. She wakes up sweating just as she drowns in the dream. Here, Riordan rewords the popular saying that if you fall off a horse, you get back on. The message is the same: When faced with something difficult and frightening, you push forward and do it anyway. This quote could be Ana’s life motto—even though she faces a number of terrifying situations in the novel and wishes to avoid them, she faces her fears head on in order to overcome them.

“I step over the last threshold my parents ever crossed.”

Ana at last enters the Nautilus, literally stepping farther than her parents, who were killed trying to enter the submarine. In doing this, Ana surpasses the abilities of all of her family members except Nemo himself. She shows how she, with her unique skills, can do what nobody else can, despite how much she doubts herself. Crossing a threshold is always a symbolic event. It represents moving from one stage in life to another. In entering the Nautilus, Ana exits the part of her life in which she considers herself the lesser Dakkar. Now, she can embrace her abilities and heritage in order to make a new name for herself.

“I ask her privately if she has anything for menstrual cramps. Mine have passed for now, but periods are like General Douglas MacArthur in World War II: They shall return.

Ophelia sighs. ‘If Nemo had been a woman? That would have been the first thing he invented. But, alas, no.’”

Ana is impressed with how well the Nautilus’s sick bay is able to help Dr. Hewett, so she decides to ask Ophelia if there is any similar alt-tech to help with something that plagues many people with uteruses—period cramps. Although not every woman has a period and not everyone who has a period is a woman, this passage still points to the larger misogyny within the realms of science, technology, and science-fiction, all of which are dominated by men. Nemo may have invented wondrous ways to heal even pancreatic cancer (the cancer Hewett has, which is famously difficult to treat), but it did not even occur to him to use his skills and knowledge to solve a problem that a large percentage of the world’s population experiences.

“The submarine looks timeless—as if she literally exists outside of time. She doesn’t belong in the twenty-first century any more than she belonged in the nineteenth. I try to imagine how lonely that would feel, especially if my creator scuttled me at the bottom of a volcanic grotto for over a century.”

Even though the Nautilus is responsible for killing Ana’s parents, she still tries to empathize with the submarine, which is an advanced artificial intelligence and therefore alive (Ana thinks of the Nautilus in terms of the pronoun “she”). She thinks about how the Nautilus was abandoned when Nemo drove it to the bottom of the ocean and died, how it sat there for over a century before anyone found it, stewing in its own anger. Even before the Nautilus sank and even after it resurfaced, it was technologically out of place. Ana can empathize with this loneliness because she too is, in some ways, alone. This ability to empathize is a great strength of Ana’s, and it will soon allow her to command the Nautilus where her parents failed.

“‘Nautilus,’ I say in Bundeli. (In case you were wondering, the word is notilas. Huge surprise.) ‘I need access to all systems, please. Our crew is on board. We’re ready to get underway.’

 From the organ comes a soft middle C. Then an octave up, another C joins in, and then an octave below, until it sounds like an entire orchestra tuning itself. The volume crescendos. The hull rumbles. Floor plating vibrates under my feet. Around the bridge, previously dark dials and gauges blink to life.”

In order for Ana to command the Nautilus, she must be able to communicate with it. This is one of Ana’s strengths as a member and prefect of Dolphin House—communication. It is notable that Ana speaks to the Nautilus in Bundeli, as it is the language of both her and Nemo’s heritage. It is also notable that Ana says please when she requests access to the submarine’s systems—it shows that Ana treats the Nautilus with the same respect she would any other human or animal. These two things together allow Ana to achieve successful communication with the submarine, which the submarine signals via music, another form of communication. The description of the music, which crescendos like an orchestra, gives the imagery of the Nautilus reawakening after a long slumber, woken by the sound of its native language and a polite relative of her creator.

“I’m thinking of him as our enemy now. Not some faceless group of rival students. My own brother. I’ve fallen into a universe I don’t understand and don’t want to.”

This quote appears after the Nautilus has escaped the Aronnax and Lincoln Base while the HP Academy students debate what to do next. After Ana explains that she believes Dev would keep his prisoners alive, she realizes how different her brother is from how she believed he was. She also realizes how different the Land Institute is from HP Academy. It would be easy to consider it a faceless enemy because then her feelings would be simple. With her brother commanding the Aronnax, however, Ana is forced to think about the Land Institute students as real people, just as she is forced to face the fact that the brother she believed she had—a kind and caring brother—has changed.

“It feels very meta to be reading a fictional book about the Nautilus on board the actual Nautilus.”

With this quote, Riordan makes a small meta-commentary on Daughter of the Deep and the novel’s layers of allusion. Here, Ana relaxes in the Nautilus’ library, reading a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea even though she is sitting in a submarine that was supposedly fictional. In addition, we, the readers, are reading a fictional account of a world in which a novel (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) is actually real. Like Ana, we know about Jules Verne and Captain Nemo, and it “feels very meta,” and very retrofuturistic, to read about the two of them and a possible future life of the Nautilus.

“As I stand alone in the treasury, I wonder if Nemo ever worried about his crew walking off with a few hundred million in gold and jewels. I guess not. What would it have mattered to him if they did? The sea gave him everything he needed.

Yet with all his wealth and advanced tech, he still ended his life bitter and defeated. He was so alone he had to trust his legacy to shipwrecked strangers.

He didn’t believe in humanity. He didn’t believe in himself. He tried and failed to change the world—and ended up being written off as a fictional character.”

Ana thinks this after she and Ester discover Nemo’s treasury, which is full of an unfathomable amount of wealth. And yet, as Ana astutely realizes, that wealth is meaningless when it comes to what is truly important in life. Even Nemo would not have really cared if someone had stolen the jewels and gold, because what he valued most was the ocean. In addition, any wealth or technology that Nemo accumulated was meaningless in the end because it could not bring his family back to life, it did not end British colonialism, and it did not make Nemo any happier. By living his life so pessimistically, Nemo was unable to achieve his dream of bettering the world. This contrasts with Ana, who clings to the best in people and remains determined, no matter how scared or unsure she might be.

“I never realized how much of leadership is learning to sound confident when you’re actually terrified.”

Leadership was thrust upon Ana, who reluctantly took up its mantle in order to save her fellow students, and it is not what Ana expects. Command involves not only having power, but also giving up a lot of power as well. As a commander, Ana cannot share her feelings, like fear, freely because she needs to appear strong for the others. This can be a lonely position, especially for someone like Ana, whose family is lost to her. Luckily, Ana’s friends support and trust her. This might be a hard lesson to learn on the job, but Ana is strong and will persist.