Dry

The Tap-Out means the lack of a necessary resource—water. With water in such short supply, people become either selfish or selfless in sharing it. Some of the characters in Dry show their selflessness by sharing resources, whereas others show their selfishness by hoarding it. Kelton’s dad is a prime example of a resource hoarder. When a neighbor comes to Mr. McCracken begging for water for his wife and their baby, Kelton thinks, “I know my dad well enough to know that he doesn’t give ‘hand-outs.’ Plus, once you start giving things away for free it’s a slippery slope. And if there’s one thing my dad hates, it’s slippery slopes” (68). Although Kelton’s dad is willing to give the neighbor advice on how to find water, he won’t give up any of his own resources. Even though they have a supply of water, he knows that it could run out, and he prioritizes his own family’s survival above all others. Kelton’s mom, on the other hand, wishes that they’d share more resources. She tries to tell her husband, “I don’t see the harm in sharing a few necessities like water if we’re going to be leaving it behind anyway…they’re our neighbors!...We’re going to have to live with these people when this is all over” (84). While Kelton’s dad hoards their resources because he’s consumed by the fear of worst-case scenarios, Kelton’s mom thinks more about their moral and neighborly obligations. She expects that they’ll be leaving behind their water supply soon anyway, and she’d prefer to share the water now while they have it and can.

Another stark contrast exists between helpers and hoarders in Charity and Henry. Charity first appears in a snapshot while driving on the interstate. The road becomes gridlocked, and Charity sees people running from a fire. Instead of running herself, “Charity marches toward the blaze, extinguisher in hand, a fire in her eyes hotter than any earthly inferno” (107). Later in the novel, the kids meet Charity when they come across her encampment, which serves as a commune of people combining resources and strengths to survive. Henry admires Charity—though for her ingenuity and not for her kindness.

After Henry betrays the group of kids, leaving them with no backup supply of water, he decides to head back to Charity’s encampment. He thinks, “My plan is simple. I will make my way back to Charity and her freeway commune. I will make myself an indispensable part of her little collective, and I will receive enough water to survive” (313). Henry’s personal escape plan, after gravely endangering Alyssa, Garrett, Kelton, and Jacqui, is to take advantage of an old woman’s kindness and charity (her namesake). Even as Henry thinks through this plan, he doesn’t hope that he can contribute something to Charity’s encampment for the sake of being a good or helpful person; he thinks only of how he can manipulate a situation and its resources for his own survival. In the water vacuum that the Tap-Out creates, need and desperation force people to reveal their true selves and their priorities. To some, their own life and the lives of their friends or family are more important than anything else, and they selfishly hoard resources. To others, moral decisions take priority over individual needs, so they willingly help others and share.