Not Waving But Drowning Poem

Stevie Smith’s poem Not Waving But Drowning, brings to light numerous parallels in the book and the play and it is alluded to several times. The play and the poem draw similar situation but towards the end leads into different endings. In the poem the man dies, this man we can associate with Sophie but in the book, we see that Sofie rescued, rescued by the man who was much farther out than her. This alludes to how in real life there are people who might be in more of a dire need, who are you can almost say “Much further out than you [think]”. Not Waving But Drowning embodies Bradie and Sofie’s situation, how Sofie struggles and Bradie struggle with depression, and how they connect and seek out each other’s help. Help they cannot give because

If someone hurts her friends they hurt Bradie. That is why it is so hard for her to see friends hurting friends. She can’t doing about it because she doesn’t want to choose. Just like she had to n the early parts of the play, where Bradie tells us of when they were twelve and it was winter. They went to the blind camp and Sofie wanted to ring bell and when Adrienne does get mad at her [Sofie]. Bradie’s body “Has turned to concrete. [She] can’t move and [She] can’t speak. All [she] can do is see.” this is one of the first events where we see Bradie unable to do anything (pg. 29). The way she talks about it is almost as if it was an omission of guilt. This is the start of her downward spiral. It first begins when she is incapable of doing anything because of her immense loyalty to Adrienne. Her immense loyalty we know has been there since the start of the book she even tells us how when she and Adrienne were not in the same class in “[she] would have a heart attack” and that it would be the “end of the world”. Her fierce loyalty can be identified as one of the main contributors to Bradie’s suffering. In relationship to the poem her loyalty parallels to the wave will drown her and her guilt will end her. Her guilt would have swallowed her whole, pushing her farther out as she cries for help in a world deaf to her

It’s like when she refuses to go to school and instead chooses to “HomeSchool” her self in this she is refusing accept the fact that one day, she’ll lose either Sofie or Adrienne. Instead of facing the reality of things, she chooses to “ [Flip] on the tv” instead of “Writing a poem” for school, hinting that she no longer wants to think about the school. Unknowingly, however, she makes connections to her real life situation, like when she when watches “THE MOST DANGEROUS AND AWFUL MOMENTS EVER”, which seems like a very violent show but she chooses to watch it anyway. Her choice of show, seems replicate her situation,which is riddled with violence, denial and cover ups. The next show that pops up is the Reena Virk case, here she feels mad. This show seems to hit to close to home. “[There] are group of girls, just like [her], Jackie, Adrienne and Amber. Who are not waving but drowning.” which makes a connection to the poem. This statement seems quite odd, in here she states “Who are not waving but drowning” almost as if all of them are struggling like her. All of them who choose to cover it up by laughing and giggling. Just like when they attacked Sofie at the beach and after they all laugh “First Amber laughs, then Jackie and all around the circle”. Bradie seems to hint that they laugh to cover up the horrendous thing