55 pages • 1-hour read
I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of illness and death.
Molasses Tank
The molasses tank functions as a central symbol, representing technological ambition and corporate negligence. Towering over Boston’s North End, the tank is “huge and ugly and leaking” (30), a menacing presence that overshadows daily life. For Carmen, its constant seepage and foul odor signify danger long before the explosion occurs. Tarshis uses the tank to personify the dangers of unregulated industrial progress; its “bleeding” molasses foreshadows human loss, transforming machinery into a living, wounded organism.
After the disaster, the tank becomes a symbol of memory and trauma. Carmen cannot look out her window without seeing it, associating it not only with the flood but also with her father’s death and the fragility of the world around her. Through this shifting symbolism, Tarshis emphasizes that progress without compassion leads to destruction. The tank’s presence forces the characters to confront the Industrial Negligence and Human Cost of Progress that define the story’s moral center.
Rosie
The horse, Rosie, symbolizes continuity, innocence, and emotional grounding amid upheaval. A beloved companion to Carmen, Rosie links her to her father’s workplace and to the rhythms of daily life in the North End. Tarshis uses Rosie to reflect Carmen’s inner world—calm and affectionate in moments of peace, frightened and untamed when disaster strikes. When Rosie bolts during the tank’s collapse, her panic mirrors Carmen’s own loss of control. Yet Rosie’s survival, and her later appearance at the hospital window, transform her into a living emblem of hope.
War and Illness
The recurring motifs of war and illness establish the story’s historical realism and emotional depth, connecting Carmen’s personal losses to the global crises of the early 20th century. References to the Great War and the influenza pandemic situate the story within a period of collective suffering. Tarshis introduces the motif early—“The word flu made Carmen feel calmer. The flu wasn’t really a killer” (23)—only to reverse that expectation when her father dies, illustrating the unpredictability of tragedy.
Tarshis’s detailed depiction of the epidemic—“Bodies piled up in the streets. There weren’t enough gravediggers to bury the hundreds dying each week” (30-31)—grounds the story in historical fact while maintaining age-appropriate restraint. The motif underscores how global events infiltrate private life, showing that disaster is not confined to a single moment but remains part of an ongoing human condition. By pairing wartime trauma with disease, Tarshis links survival in Boston’s North End to survival on a global scale, reinforcing themes of resilience and remembrance.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The recurring presence of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) functions as a literary and emotional mirror for Carmen’s journey. Lent to her by Mr. Lawrence, the book symbolizes imagination as a tool for endurance. Like Dorothy, Carmen is a displaced girl seeking home and belonging in a world upended by catastrophe. The story offers comfort and perspective, allowing her to process grief indirectly through fiction.
The novel’s imagery—storms, displacement, and the search for courage and heart—parallels Carmen’s own experiences. When Tony reads the book aloud in the Grasso household, it becomes a shared story that binds their community, transforming literature into an act of healing. Through this symbol, Tarshis celebrates storytelling itself as a means of survival, connecting the imaginative courage of fiction to the emotional recovery of real people.
“Hold On”
The phrase “Hold on” is the novel’s most significant motif, threading through both narrative and memory. Spoken first by Papa during the Italian tidal wave, the words resurface throughout the story, echoing in Carmen’s mind during moments of danger and despair. During the flood, she internalizes the command as both a literal survival strategy and spiritual guidance. Later, she realizes that her father’s voice now urges her to “hold on to their life here in l’America” (59), transforming memory into moral direction.
Carmen’s mantra foregrounds the theme of Recovery and Remembrance After Tragedy, illustrating how remembrance can sustain life. Its repetition creates a rhythmic emotional anchor for Carmen, reminding her that perseverance is an ongoing act. To “hold on” becomes an affirmation of her father’s love, her community’s strength, and her own capacity to endure and rebuild.
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