66 pages • 2-hour read
On Such A Full Sea
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Themes
Class and Social Hierarchy
In On Such A Full Sea, we are presented with a society divided into three: the outcasts (those in the counties); the Charters (elites); and the workers in the settlements (B-Mor). Author Chang-rae Lee constructs a fairytale-like story of Fan, illustrating her journey through the three different societies, showing us both good and bad things about each. The Chartered elites are stressed and worried about their position in society at all times. They must constantly hold wealth and power, or risk slipping down the social ladder and losing their positions:
It is ironic that ex-Charters should have to fall so far so quickly, that there’s no middle realm for them and their kin, pushed out as they are into the counties with little practical know-how or clue as to how to get by (62).
This is because although Charters tend to have many connections and advantages due to their families and social positions, they also have no practical skills for a world without a safety net. They are also constantly striving to be number one. Anything short of the absolute top position secures them little:
There was fierce competition for whatever one might do, at every level, whether it was playing the trombone or being on the swim team and, of course, succeeding in the classroom, where everyone was routinely tested and ranked in all subjects (134).
The immense pressure that all Charter citizens are under at all times makes them among the most stressed people in this world.
Those in the counties, conversely, are happy but live an unstructured and therefore unstable life. There is little to no law enforcement out in the open counties, with people living an almost tribal existence. This is illustrated by Quig’s compound, with Quig acting as ruler simply because of his ability to heal, making him a leader by holding a skill set that is scarce and necessary. People who are useful are allowed to live on at the compound, which offers safety, food and security, things hard to find out in the counties:“All the reasons, of course, had their ultimate basis in Quig himself […] every other person who made his or her way here had to decide how much they were willing to cede in return for such succor” (103). The counties, then, are almost working on a barter system, where wealth matters less than one’s abilities and skills.
The workers of B-Mor and other work colonies have stability, reliability, and family and are, on first glance, the most satisfied of all the groups. They are shown to know their place and stick to it, enjoying their regular schedules, honest work, and lives with few surprises. However, because of the way they make their money, their economy is largely dependent on the Charters, so there is a certain kind of instability they suffer from that is based on factors out of their control. If demand for their goods drops, the carefully-balanced machine that is their settlement begins to break down.
This happens when the fish market dries up due to rumors about Reg (the only C-free person anyone knows of) never eating fish. Protests and unrest rise to an unforeseen degree because the economy begins to collapse. Economic and policy problems abound in B-Mor:
Even our own products have become much costlier, the price of a single five-hundred-gram perch equal to what two cost just five years ago. Or that the maximum stay period in the health clinics is effectively one work cycle (six days) no matter the condition or needs of the patient (57).
Compare this with the outside counties, where Quig takes whatever time necessary to heal people. B-Mor citizens are subject to the whims of the directorate, a governing body that seems to take their needs under only so much consideration as enables them to continue to make their goods. The class system of this future America seems stable, but indicates a system of inequality and difficult living for everyone.
Freedom Versus Confinement
As a story of confinement and freedom, the book presents a strange irony. Despite having escaped the oppression of B-Mor, Fan finds herself in various forms of confinement as the novel progresses. Someone is always there to restrain her, in some way. When she is taken to the compound to recover from her car accident, she is placed into a small room and kept there, ostensibly to heal. She is confined in the room of the kept girls when Miss Cathy takes a special interest in her, and only through sheer force of will is she able to break that captivity and free herself from the situation, choosing to leave with the young doctor. Late in the novel, Fan takes refuge at the residence of Doctor Upendra. When she states that she will leave the next morning, he tells her she can do as she pleases because no one is her keeper, an oddly poignant statement given Fan’s dynamic with both captivity and freedom and the revolutionary action she took that inspired an oppressed community to believe in something greater.
Race, Colonialism, and Culture
Chang-rae Lee has much to say about race, often writing about culture and identity, and On Such A Full Sea is no exception. Fan is part of the colony of workers in B-Mor whose ancestors came over from New China, a region so devastated by environmental pollution and degradation that their only option was to be moved, en masse, to American cities that had fallen into disrepair and repopulate them. It is almost an ironic parody of the immigrant experience, where people are forced to leave their homes and come to America to find a better life, only instead of integrating their culture into the American experience, they simply replace facets of the fallen American empire wholesale.
This does not entirely sit well with the native population, some of whom refuse to be displaced. What happens next is akin to what occurred when European settlers originally came to America and the way in which the original settlers of B-Mor dealt with the native population of formerly urban Americans. Some were simply forcibly ejected, as is pointed out in Uncle Kellen’s story in Chapter 6, where although the schools in B-Mor teach that these old societies were failing, there were still stores, a government, and other fixtures of civilization.
Soon after this, there was some breeding and integration with those people who stayed, leading to bloodlines that we see become the subject of much conjecture later in the book’s timeline. An exoticism has taken root in B-Mor, where “the more native looking young B-Mors have become remarkably popular” (77). The book’s narrator adds: “There was a time—not as long ago as one would like to think—when people of Reg’s appearance would have been talked about openly, right in their faces, as if they didn’t have eyes or ears,” with people saying such things as “[t]hey can still breathe through such flat little noses […] and [e]ven the winter sun makes them darker” (78). These sorts of comments are certainly relatable to anyone who has lived as a minority among a majority culture in today’s world, where condescension and stereotyping remain a daily struggle for many people.
Family, Identity, and Sacrifice
The book speaks often of family, showing us many different kinds, but one thing that the narrative returns to again and again is the idea of family as dictated by blood versus a family that is chosen. Family is a very important concept in B-Mor. Even the narrator, instead of being one individual, is cast as a collective group of citizens, all of whom are referred to by terms such as “brother,” “sister,” “uncle,” or “cousin.” These terms are utilized as a combination of blood family and chosen family, where there is definitely a shared genetic component, since most of the citizens are descended from the original settlers, but also a larger sense of family: the community one surrounds themselves with.
We see other instances of family in the book as well, such as the Nickelmans. They are a prime example of a chosen family, literally created from the ashes of other families they have torn apart. The choices that Oliver makes, toward the end of the book, reveal his struggle with family and identity, as he tries to navigate the concept of bringing B-Mor style family togetherness to the realities of living as a Charter. These lifestyles are practically incompatible, which is evident when despite his desire for a close-knit family structure, he is still willing to betray Fan to keep his Charter lifestyle in the end.
Family is also often about sacrifice. Parents sacrifice for their children, trying to give them the best possible lives as exemplified by Chapter 5’s story of Harvey and Ruby Rivera-Deng. Many characters in the book show great bravery in giving something up or taking a stand, and most of these choices are in pursuit of family. Fan makes many sacrifices, and most of them are in some way related to the concept of family. She rescues Quig and Loreen from the Nickelmans, when she could have given in and become part of the Nickelman clan. In doing so, she has chosen the relatively unstable traditional family unit (Quig as father, Loreen as mother, Fan as child) over the Nickelman’s clan-based mentality because of her strong moral center. She chooses her family, perhaps because her own idea of what family means is informed by growing up in B-Mor, where the greater good is emphasized.
Mala is another character who is connected strongly with the concept of family, making great sacrifices for hers by working for Mister Leo and Miss Cathy, despite that she only sees her blood family every twenty days. She feels immense guilt about her complacency in allowing Miss Cathy to create a chosen family of kept girls. Once she has done well by her own morality and helped rescue the sick girls, exposing Miss Cathy, it’s no wonder her reward is that her real family will now be allowed to join her and integrate into this broader concept of family at Miss Cathy’s mansion.
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