The Boat

1. Rituals, traditions and continuity

2. The relationship between past and present

3. The persona in the story lives in his old house, and often continues his old rituals, as shown through 'there are times even now, when I wake up at four o'clock in the morning with the terrible fear that I have overslept.' showing how the local still holds a place in the persona's mind.

4. The Mother within the story is representative of both the local and one reaction the the global world, she is portrayed as a very harsh woman, who despises books shown in her line 'God will see those who waste their lives reading stupid books' showing her dislike for the global world, similarly, the natural local world is also a very harsh world, shown by the graphic portrayal of the fathers death near the end of the story.

5. The boat itself is a symbol of tradition and the local world, as the family spends most of there time doing things to assist in the use of the boat.

6. The persona working in the university (interestingly, a place of many books) is representative of his entrance into the global world, as he has given up his traditional role on the boat, to instead work teaching people from the outside world about the outside world.

7. the restraunt, which was 'run by outsiders for outsiders' shows how the global world is encroaching on the local world

8. Transience of Modern existance

9. The Significance of place and family

10. The Father shows the opposite reaction to the global world, embracing it, and partially joining it, however he is still bound to the local world were he is, shown through his love of books and radio, while still continuing his work on the boat instead of joining the global community.

11. Within the story, books are symbolic of the global world.

12. 'used paperbacks which came from those second-hand bookstores' - shows the consumerism of the global world, were items are used and then thrown away, or in this case sold, as they no longer have any use