Whalefall

One year after his father’s death by suicide, 17-year-old Jay Gardiner prepares for a solo scuba dive at Monastery Beach in Monterey, California. He is ostensibly planning to search for the remains of his father, Mitt, a locally renowned but difficult diver who died by suicide in these same waters.

On an early August morning, Jay is startled by a memory of his father’s harsh wake-up call of “Sleepers, arise!” (3). He drives to Monastery Beach, the site of Mitt’s death, but is surprised and perturbed to find the parking lot unusually full. Although he considers abandoning his plan, he soon resolves to complete the dive, hoping that if he is successful in finding his father’s remains, his venture will provide closure for his mother, Zara, and his sisters, Nan and Eva. He also hopes to change their negative perception of him. However, Jay privately rejects the possibility of finding closure for himself. Frustrated by the crowd, he searches for another place to park.

In a flashback to 2015, Mitt Gardiner recites a quote from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row (1945) to his 10-year-old son, Jay. While waiting in a hotel parking lot, about to be fired from yet another job, Mitt expresses his reverence for Steinbeck’s vision of Monterey and condemns the modern tourism that he believes has destroyed the essence of the area and endangered the natural environment.