Average Waves in Unprotected Waters

Tyler employs the motif of tidiness and order versus dinginess and disarray to embody Bet’s moral compass. Throughout the story, Bet associates cleanliness and neatness with goodness. Part of her existing identity derives from her pride in maintaining Arnold’s outward appearance as a way to compensate for his quirks and her shame. Bet’s own dilapidated clothing that “[hangs] on her like a sack” (32) reflects her poor self-worth. Arnold’s shirt, by contrast, is “too neat and the jeans too blue, unpatched and unfaded” (32). Bet makes sure to carefully button his coat and fix his collar, and when Arnold wants a peanut butter cookie, she worries that “[he’ll] get it all over his face and arrive [at the hospital] not looking his best” (34). Bet focuses on making Arnold presentable as a coping mechanism for her anxiety about how the world will judge him, choosing to be oblivious to the triviality of his appearance in the face of her decision to institutionalize him. As long as he is neat, he is a good boy, and she is a good mother. The fallacy of this logic is apparent in the hospital itself, which is clean to the point of alienation. Noting its smell of disinfectant and the sterile white walls and floors, Bet acknowledges there is no sign that children live there at all.