The Water Is Wide: A Memoir

Pat is a young man raised in the Southern United States in the mid-twentieth century. Despite being inculcated into the racist beliefs of the time, he becomes an idealistic teacher. He secures a job teaching at a poor, black school on Yamacraw Island in order to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. He is shocked by the children’s lack of education and their lack of knowledge of the world outside the island. He clashes with his fellow teacher, Mrs. Brown, because he disapproves of her berating the children and her use of corporal punishment. He suffers from “white guilt,” though, and struggles to confront Mrs. Brown because she is black. He does not hesitate to confront the school administrators, whom he blames for the children’s poor condition. This latter conflict ultimately leads to his dismissal from the school.

Pat initially lives on Yamacraw Island, but he suffers from loneliness. As a white man, he is considered suspect by the black community. At the same time, he feels that he has little in common with the white community on the island. He makes some friends on the mainland, notably Zeke and Ida Skimberry. After marrying Barbara, a widower with two sons, Pat moves back to the mainland and commutes daily by boat to the school.

Pat has specific, if somewhat contradictory, ideas about how to educate the children of Yamacraw Island. Central to his education philosophy is that he needs to build up the children’s self-esteem so that they see themselves as capable of learning and can envisage a future for themselves beyond the island. He also believes that experience of the mainland world is as important as knowledge of academic subjects.

Although Pat often fails to see his own hypocrisies, he does show some self-awareness, particularly when he admits that his own ego and self-righteousness cost him his job at the school. He also becomes deeply aware of systemic racism and its effects on both black and white communities.