A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

slashed hand as if it were “something valuable he has found in the ocean” (254). What
remains is merely the thrill of living when he had almost given up.
The ocean and its inhabitants can soothe the swimmer, surfer, or fisherman. But
they can just as well become agents of fatality and revenge, depending on the attitude of
the intruder. One example is Ralph Anthony Misitano’s short story “Deep Water,” in
which an old man remembers the old ways of fishing: “They were wise men who never
took more than what was needed for the one day. They knew that the bait-fish were not
there for them to waste, and as long as they showed respect the fish would always be
there.” 597 Because of commercial trawlers, subsistence fishing is no longer possible, so he
accepts the “unholy work” offered by a “dark stranger,” namely to hunt sharks and deliver
their teeth, hides, and eyes. He works well, “but when he slept, his dreams were of
swirling shadows, thrusting jaws and snapping teeth” (138). And really, a “monster
shark” attacks his boat, kills him, “and as his final breath left his body Jonah cried out,
‘Father, forgive me’” (141). The biblical name surely is no coincidence here, but it is
mainly native Hawaiian concepts that are implied in the story: wasteless subsistence
fishing, respect for the animals, and the special position of the shark as not only majestic
and dangerous, but also a possible ancestral figure for a native ‘ohana.
Rodney Morales’ story “The Speed of Darkness” is a prime example of how the
ocean can function as setting, agent, and metaphor in one text. Its protagonist Nick is in
love with the ocean:
Me and the Pacific have this thing, see? And if you’ve never kissed wax while
pressed against a surfboard like a lover…if you’ve never gulped salt water or
gasped for air after being pummeled by a wave…or scraped your feet and knees
on coral…If you’ve never shrieked like a child with unconstrained delight while
on a long, sweeping wave ride…or found yourself humbled by the perfection and
stillness in motion of a tube… 598
597 Ralph Anthony Misitano, “Deep Water,” in Stewart 1987: 131-41, here 133.
598 Morales 1988: 127. Morales is also one of many Local writers who attempt to convey the multitude of
colors the sea is able to show: “But I did love it between sets. Especially the colors. Those lightly-etched
blues of the sky, the range of ocean hues – turquoise green to turquoise blue in the shallow, marine blue to
cobalt to indigo further out…and the white caps…and the copper and silver crests when the sun shone
strong. And boy, when one smelled the salt air and felt the cool afterwave spray that tempered the heat of
the sun, even the white-grey forest of hotels seemed almost tolerable. From a safe distance” (131). In a
different story, he describes a daybreak as follows: “Then the ocean, from periphery to periphery, burst into
color – rippling waves of orange-lavender melding and bending over into this blue and that blue in gold and
237