In this story, "Touching bottom", by Kari Strutt, swimming was used as a unifying device.
The phrase "touching bottom" usually has a positive connotation. When related to swimming, touching the bottom makes the swimmer feel like the surface isn't too far away. In the story, when the narrator touched the bottom, it made her fight harder and it eventually made her save her life. .
The body of the story itself has a lot of imagery related to swimming. For example, the narrator's father said, "His midlife crisis will pass soon and you"ll be stuck in California, like a fish out of water." Also, the narrator's husband "swept her away on a blue wave of charm". Also, the narrator keeps talking about "murky waters". I think the "murky water" in this story represents uncertainty. The narrator was afraid of things she didn't really know, like what lied in the water she couldn't see through. .
For the narrator herself, I think swimming represented her life. She learned some of her most important lessons from it, and at the time she was almost drowning, her life was probably at the lowest point with her marriage falling apart. When the water she swims in is murky, a major change always takes place in her life, and when the water was see through, for example when she was younger, she didn't have any major problems in her life. I think by the end of the story, the narrator realizes that change is a part of life, and she starts swimming at the YMCA pool again, even though the water there is now murky. .
