62 pages • 2-hour read
All the Water in the World
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Symbols & Motifs
Water
Thematically connecting to The Social and Emotional Impacts of Climate Change, water dominates the life of every character in All the Water in the World and is thus the novel’s central motif. It changes the landscape in mere moments, it can carry pathogens that poison and harm characters, and it’s the main way they travel across the US. Clean water is scarce and precious.
Nonie introduces herself by saying that she can “feel” the water, and this is how she describes her ability to physically sense the approach of storms. She keeps the Water Logbook, where she records all the forms of water she encounters; this includes weather types, and which bodies of water are drinkable or safe to enter.
Climate change brings disastrous flooding, which has swept away human-built infrastructure and reformed the natural world. As they prepare to leave New York, Nonie looks down at the streets and buildings that the sudden rise in sea level has submerged. Even the Hudson River, formally a major body of water, has been subsumed, simply becoming a current. This emphasizes that while water gives life, it’s changeable and uncontrollable, more powerful than people. Nonie’s sister, Bix, intensely fears water because when she was young, she was nearly swept away in a flood that destroyed large sections of New York City and forced her family to flee their home. When she’s asked to enter water, she becomes terrified and unresponsive. The sisters’ differing feelings about water indicate how Nonie is better suited to this world than Bix, who fixates on the past. Nonie focuses on learning about and adapting to her environment, whereas Bix avoids it, which hinders her ability to move forward literally or emotionally.
The Sally Ride
Nonie learned about the research vessel Sally Ride from her mother, who served on the ship long before the events of the book, while she was in grad school. The ship was part of a fleet that the government sent out to sea to study the effects of climate change on the ocean. It was a long-term mission, expected to be at sea for many years. However, because society collapsed, news of the Sally Ride reaches few people.
Nonie develops a fondness for the idea of the Sally Ride and throughout the book imagines it still out at sea. It symbolizes hope and freedom for her. In addition, it’s a symbol of preservation, like the Museum Logbook, something that central to her relationship with her mother. However, the ship later represents the future, thematically linking it to The Importance of Building a Future, when the crew member she meets, Virginia, emphasizes looking forward rather than dwelling on the past. This reorients Nonie’s opinion of what people should prioritize in conducting research.
In Nonie’s view, the Sally Ride is an ideal survivor’s community. An international effort, the mission includes scientists and researchers from around the world. This starkly contrasts the insular world Nonie travels through after leaving the museum, where racism and division are commonplace. Nonie understands that she doesn’t quite fit into the various communities she experiences after leaving Amen, and the Sally Ride is a place where she can find a kind of belonging.
When Esther escapes from Hancock to the farm with Nonie, Bix, and Keller, Virginia comes looking for her, as she and Esther are long-term friends. She meets Nonie and, at the close of the book, is on her way to recruit her to join the Sally Ride’s crew. This is the end of Nonie’s character arc. She has established a place of safety with her friends and family, and she’ll now become a scientist, just as her mother predicted.
Animal in Mind
Nonie’s flashbacks reveal how Keller invented Animal in Mind, a memory guessing game based on the AMNH animals, when Nonie was a young child, and it became a central part of his relationship with her. Nonie first played the game after Mano, Keller’s nephew, recognized that Nonie had trouble communicating with other people and suggested Animal in Mind as an inroad Nonie could use to connect with others. Bix was initially dismissive of Nonie’s attempting to play it with them. However, neurodivergence made Nonie adept at internalizing and organizing the large amounts of technical information she focused on. Over her life, she memorized many of the animals in the AMNH, their names, their appearance, their habitats, eras, and even their Latin designations. Therefore, she was an excellent player of Animal in Mind.
The game symbolizes how the members of the Amen community are cognizant of Nonie’s neurodivergence and willing to finds ways to make her a part of the community. In addition, it symbolizes how, in this new society composed of academics, curators, and scientists, hyper-specialization is normalized and part of everyday life, allowing Nonie to fit in with them in a way that may not have been possible in “The World As It Was.”
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