Red Kayak

"Last year, the state legislature cut Dad’s workday from fourteen hours down to eight. Then the governor took away the month of November, and it hurt us financially. My mom had to put in extra hours at the nursing home, and Dad was pretty ticked off. “They’re blamin’ the wrong people!” he railed. “Pollution and development—that’s what’s killin’ us. Bay be right smart of crabs if it weren’t for all the damned condo-minions going up!”

Here, Cummings begins to sketch out the parallels between the crabbing storyline and the novel's main plot. Like Digger (and, to a lesser extent, Brady and J.T.), Mr. Parks perceives the DiAngelos and those like them as a threat; by polluting the bay, their "condo-minions" endanger the Parks' livelihood, which depends on the stability of the crab population. The government's response further exacerbates Mr. Parks'resentment, because he feels the regulations unfairly target blue-collarworkers while letting the town's newer, wealthier residents continue to damage the environment. Ultimately, Mr. Parks' acknowledginghis responsibility in protecting the river echoes Digger's recognition that seeking revenge on the DiAngelos was wrong.

"So there we were, all of us laughing because we'd knocked out four oxymorons smack in a row—and that's when we first saw the red kayak.

…Digger's face lit up. "The Italian Stallion," he chortled, a dual reference to the heritage of our new neighbor, Marcellus DiAngelo, and his obsession with physical fitness. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Digger pretended to call out: "Paddle hard, you sucker!"

He and J.T. exchanged this look I didn't quite catch, and J.T. started laughing, too"

In addition to hinting at the true nature of the accident, this passage marks a turning point in Brady's friendship with J.T. and Digger (though he doesn't know it at the time). Cummings frequently uses the oxymoron motif to develop the boys' friendship with one another; in this case, the appearance of the red kayak interrupts their lighthearted joking in much the same way that Digger and J.T.'s tampering with the kayak disruptsthe entire friendship. The shift in tone echoes this development, with Digger and J.T.'s earlier laughter over an innocent in-joke giving way to a darker enjoyment of the accident awaiting—they believe—Mr. DiAngelo.

"But from Digger’s point of view, we were only hanging out under our cliff, where we hung out a million times over the last thirteen years. That cliff and all the property the DiAngelos now own was all part of our stomping grounds. We shot tin cans out on the cornfield. Built forts in the woods. Raced go-carts down the tractor roads. So you know, I did feel for some of Digger’s frustration" 

In this passage, we see one example of how the past can make itself felt in the present. The memories Brady and his friends have of the DiAngelos' property are so strong, and so central to the development of the boys' friendship, that they involve a kind of informal claim on the land itself: Brady describes the cliff as "their cliff." Although both Brady and the novel ultimately condemn Digger's actions, this memory frames his motivations in a more sympathetic light.

"He's a cute kid. A 'towhead,' Mom called him because his hair is so blond it's almost white. He had one of those haircuts that looked like somebody put a bowl on his head and cut around it. His eyes were like two big blueberries. And when he smiled, two deep dimples appeared in the center of his cheeks" 

Beyond being a "cute kid," Ben's entire physical appearance—big eyes, dimples, etc.—suggests his young age and sweet disposition. This makes the fallout from Digger and J.T.'s actions particularly tragic; however understandable their anger toward Mr. DiAngelo might have been, they've allowed their hurt feelings to cause the death of an entirely innocent person. 

"They never seemed to mind having a kid hanging around. I was pretty quiet, and I even helped out some, like picking up trash and emptying the ashtrays. I cooked for them, too. I learned how to cook early on because I was alone so much, and I was an expert on macaroni and cheese from the box. I’d stand up on a chair, and when the pot of water on that twelve-burner gas stove was boiling, I’d dump in eight, nine, ten boxes of macaroni at a time and stir it with a great big wooden spoon "

As Brady describes living with Carl in the wake of Amanda's death, it is clear that he takes pride in the fact that he made himself useful around the fire station by cleaning and cooking. Brady's desire to help people extends into the present, where it inspires him to do things like participate in the search and rescue efforts on the river. Nevertheless, we see hints of the bittersweet origins of Brady's responsible behavior when he notes that he learned to cook because he was "alone so much" as a child.

"Almost the whole time in school, I didn't let myself think anything bad was going to happen to Ben. I was a little swept up in being a hero, I guess. I'd never been one before, and it felt pretty neat" 

Although Brady is a compassionate and conscientious person when the novel begins, his understanding of what it means to be responsible evolves significantly over the course of the story. At this point, Brady still takes some pleasure in the idea of being a hero, imagining appearing on TV and fantasizing about Mrs. DiAngelo thanking him. Ben's death, along with the discovery of the drill, will later bring the reality of the situation home to Brady; by the time The Red Kayak ends, Brady realizes that doing the morally right thing can be difficult and unpopular.

"The sweet, painful memory of my sister had paled over the years, but I would never forget. I was seven years old when she came and went—and we never ever talked about Amanda. We don’t even refer to her—leastways not in front of my mother. There is nothing in our house to even suggest Amanda ever existed. Not a stuffed animal, or a picture, or a piece of her clothing—nothing. My parents packed some stuff in a trunk and got rid of the rest. Then they locked that trunk and put it in a corner of the attic. The only thing left was Amanda’s name on the back of Dad’s boat, and Dad wasn’t about to paint over it. Despite my mother, he stood his ground on that one" 

Questions of how to deal with past loss are central to The Red Kayak, asmany characters attempt to cope with difficult memories through avoidance. Although Mrs. Parks herself has the butterfly garden as a memorial to Amanda, she puts away any other objects that might serve as a reminder of her daughter and avoids talking about her.Mrs. Parks' actions are understandable, but nevertheless cause significant pain to Brady, who sees them as a denial of the fact that Amanda ever existed. They also strain family relationships. Brady implies, for instance, that his parents argued over the name of his father’s boat—Miss Amanda.Brady and his mother will eventually talk through Amanda's death and reach a compromise about how to deal with her things: Brady can go "visit" his sister in the attic whenever he likes. In this way, the storyline surrounding Amanda's death parallels the one surrounding Ben's, which achieves resolution only after Brady brings all the facts out into the open.

"I looked away again, but I knew Carl needed me to respond. A little nod was all I could manage. I didn't know how to express what I was feeling, which, as far as I could tell then was a combination of guilt for what I hadn't done, anger because of what did happen, and enormous sadness for Ben and his family" 

Brady's difficulty in moving past Ben's death stems in part from the ambiguity of his own role in the accident.Even as the novel opens, he's still wondering whether what happened was his fault. At this point in the novel, of course, Brady hasn't yet learned that Digger and J.T. sunk the kayak deliberately…and on his suggestion. However, he is very aware of the fact that he had a chance to warn the DiAngelos about the weather on the day of the accident, but instead chose to do nothing. This makes for confusion, since Brady is probably more used to thinking about guilt in terms of things he did do rather than in terms of things he didn't.

"I knew I couldn't go back out on the water. Not because I was afraid, or because I blamed the river for what happened. It was because of an overwhelming sadness that came over me being near the water. In the hazy morning air, all I could see was a red kayak, sunk in the river, and Ben’s half-closed eyes and cold blue lips. Whatever it was inside of me that had shut down curled inward" 

Although Brady isn't yet aware of its full significance, the red kayak has already become a symbol of guilt and lossby this point in the novel; Brady saw the kayak on the morning of the sinking but chose not to call out a warning—a decision he now regrets. In fact, Brady's feelings about the kayak extend toward the entire Corsica River, which he now can't help but associate with Ben's death. In the short term, Brady attempts to deal with his sadness simply by avoiding any reminder of it, abandoning his crab pots in much the same way that he's packed away the LEGOs he'd intended to give to Ben.

"'Mom—my mom—she believes that butterflies are like little spirits. Who knows? Maybe even my sister's,' I said, shrugging because I'd never been sure about that" 

The symbolism of the butterfly garden works on multiple levels in The Red Kayak. Most obviously, it is a symbol of hope to people who have survived a loss—a reminder that their lives will go on. At other times, however, Cummings uses the butterfly garden to symbolize the spirit's survival beyond death; just ascaterpillarstransform into butterflies, humans might leave their bodies at death only to reemerge in a different form.  

"It was when I turned the corner on the boathouse and pulled the rake through a tangle of prickers that I saw something reflect the sun. At first I thought it might be a knife, some kind of a silver knife. I stopped whistling. But when I reached over to pull it out of the weeds, I saw it wasn’t a knife at all. It was a drill. My father’s cordless drill. The one he said he was missing a while back.

I held it and let the rake fall because I could see that there were flecks of red paint on the drill bit. I swallowed hard. Flecks of red that looked as though they might even be the same color as the red kayak" 

This moment is significant largely because it marks a turning point in the novel's plot—the moment when Brady realizes the accident wasn't actually (or at least entirely) an accident. Cummings underscores the incriminating nature of the drill by linking it to images of violence; Brady first mistakes it for a knife, and the flecks of red paint suggest blood. Although Cummings will later reveal that Brady and J.T. didn't intend to kill anyone, the above passage highlights the violence of their actions.

"Back outside, I took in deep breaths of fresh air and walked, my feet scuffing up dust, over to the next chicken house. Inside the door, I saw J.T. right away. Wearing a bright red T-shirt, he was about halfway down the building, walking slowly, the chicks parting and making a path as he moved. He had a pillowcase in one hand, and when he bent over occasionally, I knew he was picking out the dead chicks, or the ones that were hobbling around, getting ready to keel over" 

When Brady arrives at J.T.'s house to ask him about the drill, it hasn't yet occurred to him that J.T. himself might be involved. Brady's first glimpse of J.T., however, hints at the role he played in the accident; his red shirt recalls the color of the kayak, and the dead and dying chicks recall Ben. Nevertheless, the passage as a whole paints a picture of J.T. that is sympathetic, with the description of him "walking slowly" between the chicks suggesting sadness and tiredness.

"Digger had cupped his hands around the cigarette to relight it after the wind put it out. Then he blew smoke out the side of his mouth like an old pro and offered it to me again. 'One puff ain’t gonna turn you into an addict.'

I had to screw up my face to make the point. 'They make me gag.'

So Digger had turned to J.T., thrusting it at him. 'For cryin’ out loud, you weakling, it’s not like you’re gonna keel over and die right here on the spot.'

Digger had a way of pushing J.T. around, and darned if J.T. didn’t accept that cigarette, take a quick puff, and hand it back" 

As in the earlier scene where Digger mocks J.T. for drinking green tea, the above passage echoes the dynamics of the boys' friendship while also foreshadowing the roles each will play in the sinking of the kayak:Digger shames J.T. into an action, and J.T. reluctantly bows to the pressure.The fact that he takes only a "quick puff" suggests that his heart isn't in it. It is also significant that Brady stands firm in his refusal, since he ultimately overcomes the guilt he feels about turning in his friends in order to tell the truth about the accident.

“I remember once, Digger told me how his parents had such a big fight in the middle of the night that he took his little brother and sister and walked over to his grandfather’s house. I always thought that was so sad, Digger and those little kids padding down the road in the dead of night, in their slippers. And to get away from their own parents!”

By giving us a glimpse into Digger's life at home, Cummings helps us better understand the anger and frustration that ultimately lead Digger to sabotage the kayak. Significantly, his grandfather's house is a place where Digger once went to avoid violence at home.The fact that the DiAngelos demolished it, then, must have hit Digger doubly hard by taking away one of the only safe havens he had. The passage also underscores Digger's deep love for his younger siblings, which paves the way for his ultimate remorse; Brady asks Digger how he would feel if his brother or sister had been killed instead of Ben, and Digger admits that it would have devastated him. In sum, Cummings uses this anecdote to humanize Digger by portraying him as mistreated, isolated, and vulnerable.

 "This'll sound crazy, I know—a kid like me from the boonies on the Eastern shore—but what I want to do someday is design buildings—maybe even parks and stuff. At home, on the shelf next to my basketball trophies, I have a whole city of cardboard buildings that I carved out with my X-Acto knife" 

Brady's dream of becoming an architect is interesting for several reasons. First, it ties back to the afternoon he spent playing LEGOs with Ben, when the two boys built a castle and drawbridge. It also calls to mind the rapid construction and development happening around Bailey's Wharf, which so many of the novel's characters—including Brady's own father—resent. The fact that Brady wants to design buildings despite knowing the "craziness" of the dream for "a kid like him" points to his willingness to buck prevailing trends. This is a trait that ultimately leads him to tell the truth about the accident, even against his friends' wishes. Brady's dreams are also significant on a more abstract level, since they speak to a desire to be a positive, "constructive" force in the world; throughout the novel, Brady is constantly trying to build and mend relationships with other characters.

"My mind sure was drifting. Looking back, I could see there were things we three did that I would never forget. Boy, like the day we were playing ice hockey and I went through the ice on that cow pond. It was Digger who saved my life. I can still see him sprawled toward me, his chin bleeding, his tooth chipped forever, reaching both of his bare, cold hands out to me while I thrashed around in that freezing water and couldn’t get a grip because the edges of the ice kept breaking. 'Grab on, Brady! Grab on!' And J.T. in the background, holding Digger’s ankles so he wouldn’t go down with me.

Suddenly Ben’s little face broke into my mind, scattering all those memories like ice chips. His little face with the blueberry eyes and the big dimples. My hands curled up into fists and my chest got tight remembering something Carl once told me: Hypothermia makes you shiver real bad, then your muscles get rigid and you kind of go into a stupor and pass out…." 

Brady's reluctance to speak up about the drill stems mostly from his long friendship with J.T. and Digger. Besides not wanting to betray his friends, Brady has a hard time reconciling his positive memories of them with the knowledge of their criminal actions. When he says in this passage that he can "never forget" some of their experiences together, it sounds almost as if he believes that speaking up about the drill would require losing those memories. The problem, of course, is that Brady can't forget about Ben either. In fact, it is thinking about one of his most positive memories of Digger that actually causes Brady to remember pulling Ben from the water; the similarities between the two incidents—the water and the cold—prevent Brady from mentally distancing his friends from their role in Ben's death.  

 "It was a comfort, knowing I had a picture of my sister, hidden away in my wallet. Later that night, while Kevin was in the bathroom brushing his teeth, I took her out for one more look, then tucked the photo back under the ten-dollar bill and pushed my wallet deep down inside my duffel bag"

Throughout The Red Kayak, Brady expresses regret that he doesn't have more to remember his sister by. While visiting his cousins, though, Brady is finally given the memento he needs: a photo of his sister that he can keep with him at all times. In addition to helping Brady work through his grief surrounding Amanda's death, the picture serves as a counterpoint to objects like the drill and thekayak: although Brady keeps the photo of his sister "hidden" like the drill, it is a symbol of comfort to him rather than one of nagging guilt.

"It’s embarrassing for me to describe how we both caved in then and just had it out, crying and hugging each other. All those years we had both missed Amanda so much—and yet we never said anything! It still hurts some when I get to thinking on it, but I try not to go there. So let me just say it was one tremendous relief to get it all out that day with my mother.

'It seems silly,' I said to Mom at one point. 'She’s been gone so long.'

'No. No, not silly,' Mom disagreed. 'We can’t forget her, Brady. She’s part of who we are. She always will be.'"

Although Brady's relationship with his mother is loving and supportive, the issue of Amanda's death is a stumbling block between them for most of the novel. However, whenMrs. Parks finds her son looking at Amanda's photograph, the two finally talk openly about Amanda and come to a better understanding of one another's perspective.At the end of the conversation, Brady's mother even gives him a key to Amanda's things as a sign that she respects his need to remember Amanda in his own way. Finally, they clarify to one another that Amanda is an ongoing presence in their lives, rather than a memory to try to ignore or forget.

"'My mother—your grandma Ellen—she used to say to me, "Tommy, if you know right from wrong, then the answer is always right there, smack in front of you. It’s when you get to thinkin’ on it that you get in trouble. Because doin’ what’s right is not always the easiest thing."

'And there’s no doubt,' Dad continued, 'it would be far easier for me to go along with the other fellers. Drive down to Crisfield tomorrow and hold up a sign. Raise hell with the governor for clampin’ down on us. And keep crabbin’ these waters till they ain’t nothin’ left!'

He rested his hands on the edge of the workbench. 'But I’ll tell you, Brady, it’s wrong. It’s the wrong thing for the bay. And it’s the wrong thing for me.'"  

Although moral responsibility is generally a complicated issue in The Red Kayak, Cummings suggests that some ethical problems are relatively simple at heart. In this passage, Brady's father argues that while it's tempting to let the desire for approval influence our decisions, doing so often steers us away from making the correct decision. This is a lesson that recurs throughout the book—in J.T.'s willingness to go along with Digger's plans, in Brady's decision not to call out a warning to the kayak—but it's one that Brady only fully grasps when he decides to tell the truth about the accident. 

"The motor hummed as we moved out, the only boat on the creek. Heavy, gray clouds obscured the sunrise, and a few raindrops already warned us it wasn’t going to be a beautiful day. But I didn’t care. We needed the rain. It was long overdue, I thought, lifting my eyebrows, just as what I was doing was long overdue"

The weather in The Red Kayak frequently parallels the novel's plot and tone. In this case, it even parallels Brady's actions; after weeks of drought, the rain brings relief in much the same way that Brady's decision to come clean about the kayak's sinking does.

"Adjudication. Disposition. Master. I guess the juvenile court didn’t want kids feeling like they were real criminals with a trial and a sentencing by someone called a judge. Even if what got them here in the first place was a criminal act. I didn’t laugh, but I shook my head; if you were this deep into it, none of these labels made a lick of difference"

The events of The Red Kayak cause Brady to mature significantly over the space of only a few months. Although Digger and J.T. are tried in juvenile court, Brady realizes in this passage that the entire situation is very serious and grown-up. This contrasts sharply with his earlier protestation that he and his friends are "only thirteen years old"; J.T. and Digger's age does factor into their sentence, but it does not excuse their actions altogether 

"Suddenly Digger was turning, his eyes scanning the courtroom until he saw me. 'I also want everyone in here to know that my friend Brady Parks—he’s sittin’ there in the back—that Brady should in no way get blamed or looked down on for what happened. I don’t hold nothin’ against you, Brady. And I’m sorry I lied to you. We was best friends growin’ up and…well, you were right, about no one ever forgetten’.'" 

Digger's acceptance of responsibility for sinking the kayak surprises Brady andsignals a major change in Digger's character. When Brady initially confronted him about the drill, Digger had not only insisted that he hadn't done anything wrong, but had threatened to try to incriminate Brady if he spoke up. The fact that Digger ultimately appreciates the harm he has caused and even tries to shield his friends by taking the blame himself suggests that he too has matured over the course of the novel, becoming more responsible and selfless.

"He smirked. 'No garden there anymore.'I had a terrible vision then of Mrs. DiAngelo angrily ripping up the butterfly bush and the flowers I’d planted and heaving them all over the fence. 'She took it with her!' He laughed. 'Dug up all those plants, that big purple one, the stones—everything.'"

One of the loose ends in the aftermath of Brady's confession and the trial ishow the truth about the accident would affect the DiAngelos. Brady worries in particular about Mrs. DiAngelo having to rehash painful memories, and fears she might view him as responsible for Ben's death. Her ultimate decision to keep the butterfly garden, however, suggests that neither of his worries have quite come to pass. Although the trial was undoubtedly painful forMrs. DiAngelo, her commitment to keeping the butterfly garden alive signals that she still holds out hope for the future. It also suggests that she is at peace with Brady, who helped her plant the garden in the first place.