Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates, is a dark and emotional novella about power and trust. It tells the story of an innocent, twenty-six-year-old girl named Kelly, who meets the Senator at a Fourth of July party. She is instantly attracted to him, although she just met him. Being the naive and over-trusting person that she is, she decides to leave the party with the Senator, who is drunk and drives recklessly. Little does she know, his careless driving causes him to steer into a dark pool of water, passenger side down. The book takes you through Kelly’s thoughts and emotions during the accident and while she is drowning, as well as flashbacks she has before it occurred. This book has a unique writing style, teaches many important life lessons, and therefore should be taught to students.

Back Water is an important book to be taught to students for many reasons. This book is based on an incident that happened in 1969, involving Senator Ted Kennedy. Because the book is based on a real event, it is a very good way of portraying how life was like back then and the way that women were treated in society. “Joyce Carol Oates allows us to know the victim in this story. In so doing, she provides a brilliant vision of how a culture has learned to associate political power with sex and to accept as one of the trappings of power the single thing most chronically wrong in the relations between men and women: that old, awful tendency to see the other as a sexual abstraction, a goal” (Baush, Her Thoughts While Drowning). Back then, women were treated poorly by men. It was very popular for men to have affairs, and when they did, no one would say anything about it. But if a women was to cheat on her husband, it made the man look bad and people would look down on them. Also, women back then tried really hard to impress society and were seen as inferior to men. Kelly was a very good example this because of her struggles with trying to impress the Senator and the fact that she didn’t think she was good enough for him. “She was the girl, she was the one he’d chosen, she was the one to whom it would happen, the passenger in the rented Toyota” (Oates 44). In this quote Kelly is describing her surprize when she realizes that she is the one that the Senator wanted to be with. She is acting as though he is too good for her and she is so surprised that he had chosen her.

The book shows many examples of male dominance and power, which is an important theme in the book. Black water showed how men are always thought of as more powerful than women. In the book, the Senator was constantly doing things that showed he had control. The entire time that he and Kelly were driving, the Senator had power over where they were going, the speed of the car, air conditioning, and the music that was playing. “She would have liked to turn the frantic air conditioner down a notch but hesitated, for this was The Senators car after all, and she his passenger" (Oates 30). This showed that he had total control and dominance over Kelly. Kelly also proved that he was dominant because she did nothing to stop him and never spoke for herself. Another thing that gave the Senator a sense of power is that even though Kelly figured out his real name, he was still referred to as “the Senator.” By not saying his name, the Senator was given a sense of mischievousness and shows that the man has the power in the relationship. I think that reading this book will give students and opinion and something to discuss. They will get a better perspective on society. The books that classrooms should read are the ones that make them think the most and make them speculate what they do.

The writing style of the book is very unique and well written. It is descriptive and provides a lot of literary devices such as metaphors, similes, hyperboles, and a lot of imagery. With these elements, the author is able to provide a vivid image of the events that occurred in the book and students are able to visualize what is going on in their heads. The reader is also able to feel the emotion, pain and confusion that the characters endured. “As the black water rose about her imperceptibly it seemed to her that draining, trickling water in thin rivulets like tears on her face, the soft groping-sucking of hundreds of leeches fastening their mouths on her, no it was merely water, she was sitting in water, shivering convulsively in water that smelled of sewage, gasoline, oil, her own urine where she’s soiled herself” (Oates 89). Not only does it include many literary devices, but it also uses good vocabulary and is written in a way that is very different from the books normally read in class. The book is written in a style that uses flashbacks to skip around from past to present. The book first starts off with the drive that Kelly and the Senator take when they crash into the water. As Kelly is falling, she has flashbacks of moments she had in her past such as her past relationships, her family, and how she and the Senator met. Then, the passages shift back to the accident, describing, Kelly’s emotions during the whole thing. Because it is written in such a different style, students can really experience different ways of writing and it helps them interpret the book overall. I think it is good for students to get a feel for this author’s writing.

The story told in the novella Black Water teaches a lot of lessons to students. One lesson taught is about trust. When Kelly trusted the Senator too soon, she believed he would come save her, but ended up drowning while he lied about her to save his reputation. “The sheer arrogance of the man as he abuses Kelly’s confidence in him (her thesis was on him; he’s single, she’s obviously interested in him, so why not?), and, in the aftermath of the incident, is concerned only with this career highlights the arrogance of power and the versions of truth that we are fed” (Black Water Booklit). This teaches us not to put too much trust into someone or something that you don’t know. You should always trust yourself more. Another lesson taught is about confidence and self-esteem. In the book, Kelly is constantly afraid to stand up for herself. She is influenced by the Senators power and doesn’t stop herself from driving with him or tell him that they are lost. Because of her inability to speak up, her life ended in disaster. This shows how confidence is the key to success and you must never follow the wrong path. Overall, Black Water teaches many lessons about life, not taking things for granted, and trusting yourself, which are all important things for students to realize.


Reading this book shows many problems that go on in the real world. If this book would be read by students in class, they would be able to really understand the importance of choices and consequences, and could learn to speak for themselves. It would also improve their writing skills with its impressive writing style and use of literary devices.