Water is an evolving symbol throughout Away, shifting from a background element of environmental distress to the central motive for the entire conspiracy. Initially, the narrative establishes water scarcity as a consistent pressure on Colorado life, with news reports discussing drought and wildfire as realities of daily life and Grandin’s family unable to save a cow from dying of dehydration. Water scarcity has always been a fact of life in the American West, and the novel posits a future in which climate change and population growth make the lack of water an ever greater problem. The revelation of a massive, criminal to steal Colorado’s water for California is reminiscent of the real-life “water wars” of the 1920s, when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, run by chief engineer William Mulholland, built a dam and aqueduct to siphon water from the Owens River Valley all the way to Los Angeles, more than 200 miles south. The project led to widespread desertification in the Owens Valley and the ruin of many local farms. Valley residents felt that their water had been stolen, leading to a years-long conflict in which activists repeatedly dynamited the dam.

In Away, the symbolic importance of water directly fuels the novel’s core themes, illustrating how a resource essential for life can be commodified to the point of justifying widespread deception and human suffering.