im a bit late here but i would like to point out that for a very long time most seamen couldnt swim either especially th
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LosGanjales — 12 years ago(July 17, 2013 09:00 AM)
even if she could swim, where should she swim to? so there is no point in learning how to swim if there is no way out.. and it's not like they are having pool partys every day it's another time where swimming is not linked to having fun. that is when she learns how to swim with the mariner..
and also, if she went for a swim she would have to do it fully clothed because of her back tattoo, which would be suspicious, so i think her mom didnt want her to go swimming.. -
wildfire160 — 12 years ago(July 18, 2013 03:05 PM)
Its not unusual for some marine societies to have a lot of non swimmers, hell of a lot of sailors in the Royal Navy in the 17th/18th century couldn't swim either,it really isn't that unusual
"Nee ta ma duh tyen-shia suo-yo duh run doh gai si" -
Technomage001 — 10 years ago(October 11, 2015 11:48 AM)
Old post but I had to comment on it. I saw a movie not to long ago (The Water Is Wide) about a group of people who lived for generations on an island off South Carolina. Even though drowning deaths happened from time to time. No one on the island could swim. I thought it was odd but a little research proved it was true. They didn't even know what Halloween was they were so separate from the mainland.
The Water Is Wide
Pat Conroy, an ambitious, slightly rebellious idealistic teacher accepts Bennington county, SC's school board superintendent's offer to teach the all-black kids of the pauper fishery community on Yamacrew Island.
Based on true events. -
vendor-14 — 10 years ago(November 26, 2015 08:51 PM)
I just re watched this movie, and while arguing with the Mariner about the existence of Dryland, Helen has a line about the earth they discovered when they found Enola being darker than the earth the Mariner had on his plant. From this I concluded that Enola was the lone occupant of a drifting boat that made it to an atoll, kind of like a variation on Moses.
When they later arrived at Dryland, it became apparent that Enola had been launched from the beach by a dying couple. I got the idea that she arrived on the atoll as an unwanted (for lack of enough resources to go around) infant or very young child, and may have been indifferently cared for until Helen took her on. Enola's not being able to swim could have been the result of having no real parent to care enough to teach her.
As a plot device, not being a swimmer set Enola apart from the other humans and made her different from them. This gave Enola another point of contrast with the Mariner. He has gills, she can't swim. He's silent, she talks. He owns chalk as a possession, she draws land animals with it. He's of the water, she's of the land.
Enola's inability to swim also sets up the pivotal scene in the movie, where the Mariner cares enough to teach her. This sets up a powerful bond between them that guarantees the Mariner will do anything to rescue her when the time comes.
So from my perspective, Enola's inability to swim made sense and helped to drive the plot and emotional arc of the movie. -
slon45 — 9 years ago(August 16, 2016 10:18 PM)
Enola was found in a basket, presumably only a few years old. Since then she has been living on the atoll. Since kids tend to learn to swim a few years into their life (or later), Enola should have been just as likely to learn how to swim as anyone else living on the atoll.
If anything, the reason she doesn't know is that nobody got around to teaching her yet. Mariner does that during the movie. So it's not that much of a plot hole, just not for the reasons people think: the fact that she was born on dry land likely had nothing to do with it.
