Week 6 Analysis: Literary analysis of Beyond the Breakers

"Beyond the Breakers" is yet another story about the beach and ocean that has a setting so great that it creates such vivid imagery. For some reason, stories such as this one that are about the beach and the ocean always captivates me and gives me a feeling of nostalgia. While reading this story, I imagined sitting on the beach in the warmth of the sunset and the feeling of sand between my toes while the sound and sight of the different sets of waves rolling in and breaking over the warm sand. After the wave breaks the water then rolls up the beach and barely touches my feet and the feeling of the immediate cold that is the great blue. Sterling writes "the singing waves of the sea, clean beyond all of clean, beautiful, swift, alive, undulant, apple-green" (George Sterling, "Beyond the Breakers", 308). This one simple quote shows so much, the imagery and meaning behind it is what drew me in. The theme of the story is also shown within the quote, and the that theme has to be purity. He stated that the ocean was "clean beyond all of clean" which means that there is nothing dirty about the ocean it almost purifies you in a way (308). The meaning of purification also makes me think of the Catholic religion where they would use water to purify you, also known as Holy Water. Then in Christianity and Catholicism together, you get baptized in a big pool of water and become born again. Water is something that has always been symbolized as pure and clean which means that the ocean could be considered the biggest and purist thing on Earth currently.