The Atlantic Ocean as a Symbol in Beyond That, the Sea
Literal Role of the Atlantic Ocean
In Beyond That, the Sea, the Atlantic Ocean is the physical body of water that separates Great Britain and the United States. For the protagonist Beatrix Thompson (later Bea), it is the space she must cross twice: first as a child evacuated from London during World War II to live with the Gregorys in Massachusetts, and later as a young woman returning to England. The ocean appears in key moments—a swim to town, a ship deck at night, a flight descending over the Maine coast—and its meaning shifts from a dividing line to a bridge between two homes.
Where the Ocean Recurs and How Its Meaning Changes
Early Summer in Maine: The Ocean as Threat and Challenge
When Beatrix first arrives at the Gregorys’ island in Maine, she cannot swim. The ocean is a source of terror: “she finds her chest seizing” (chapter 21). Mr. G teaches her to float and blow bubbles, transforming the water from an obstacle into a skill. The swim to town (chapter 24) marks a milestone. Bea feels the ocean “that separates her from them” has “grown wider over the past year.” Here, the ocean literally separates her from her parents in London, but the same water also connects her to her new family. She turns from the Gregorys to face east, toward “the island, and beyond that, the sea”—a gesture that acknowledges both distance and belonging.
The Return Voyage: Ocean as Grief and Finality
In chapter 57, after the war ends, Bea sails back to England. Standing on the ship’s deck, she looks at “the black ocean” and wishes she could reverse the course. The ocean now represents the irreversibility of leaving her American family. She tells William it is “worse if we try to stay connected… across an ocean.” The crossing reinforces the emotional rupture; the water is cold, dark, and final. Yet William’s handmade book, slipped into her trunk, attempts to merge their childhoods across that same ocean, suggesting the sea can also be a space of imaginative connection.
Later Return: Ocean as Memory and Closure
Two decades later, Bea flies to America for William’s funeral (chapter 93). The ocean is hidden beneath clouds until the descent, when “the blue sea lies far below.” She whispers “Goodbye” to the place where William died. The ocean here becomes a medium of memory: it holds the past, and Bea can now face it from a distance. The present self can see the landscape of loss without being swallowed by it.
Character and Theme Connections
Beatrix / Bea
Bea’s relationship with the ocean traces her growth from a frightened evacuee to an adult who carries multiple homes within her. The ocean is the stage for her most transformative moments: learning to swim, saying goodbye, returning. By the final chapter, Bea watches her daughter Nell swim in Maine, completing a cycle where the ocean is no longer a barrier but a space of family continuity.
Mr. G (Ethan Gregory)
Ethan teaches Bea to swim, offering her the ocean as a skill and a gift. Later, when he receives the telegram ordering Bea’s return (chapter 53), he rows alone into the harbor and wishes “he could let the water take him far away.” The ocean becomes a symbol of his own helplessness and desire to escape the inevitable separation.
Reginald Thompson
Bea’s father Reginald has a recurring dream of “walking into the ocean” (chapter 3), which reveals his guilt for sending her away. For him, the ocean is not a place of freedom but of drowning regret.
Theme: Belonging and Displacement
The ocean physically divides two cultures and families. Bea struggles to feel fully at home in either place. The epigraph from Virginia Woolf places “the sea” beyond a nursery, suggesting that the sea is both the boundary of a safe childhood and the call to a larger world. The novel’s title, Beyond That, the Sea, echoes this idea: the sea is what lies past the familiar, requiring a leap.
Theme: Memory and Grief
The ocean holds both joyful summers and traumatic departures. In the final chapters, Gerald sits on the porch watching “the calm ocean,” and Bea feels the presence of William and Mr. G. The water becomes a container for cumulative loss—and for the slow process of integration.
Study Questions with Answers
1. How does the ocean’s meaning change when Bea learns to swim?
Before learning, the ocean represents fear and exclusion. Mr. G’s patient instruction transforms it into a space of achievement and belonging. The swim to town becomes proof that she can cross the distance between her two worlds, even as she acknowledges that the ocean separates her from her birth parents.
2. Why does Bea tell William it is “better… to cut it off cleanly” rather than maintain a transatlantic relationship?
She speaks from experience: living “across an ocean from people you love” (chapter 57) is painful and slowly erodes connection. The ocean, for Bea, amplifies absence. She chooses a clean break to protect both of them from the slow evaporation of intimacy.
3. In what way does the handmade book William gives Bea challenge the ocean as a symbol of separation?
William’s book blends their childhoods by pairing photos of Bea and himself side by side—crib, beach, missing tooth. The book “allows them to share a single past” and suggests that imagination and memory can bridge the Atlantic. The ocean remains a physical barrier, but the book creates a parallel space where they are always together.
4. How does the final chapter reframe the ocean’s symbolism for Bea?
As an adult living on an island in Maine with Gerald, Bea watches the ocean from her home. It no longer signals departure or grief; it is a backdrop for family life. The final image of her daughter Nell swimming echoes Bea’s own childhood swim, but now the ocean is a place of inheritance and peace—a home that holds all the pieces of her past.