Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I had vaguely noticed the many references to water, but not lined them up, as it were, to realise just how many there were. Thinking about it now (thank you issybird) I see the link with death which appears all through western literature at least.
Crossing the Jordan of course, the river Styx, a dead person buried with a coin to give the ferryman. (On a personal note, I remember that when my father was dying, he tried to get out of bed because he said he had to cross over the water. So the literary/mythological references appear to have arisen from something deep within ourselves.)
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While I agree with you, the problem for me is that I don't see how it's especially germane to this particular story. It's an instance where I think Atwood did it because she could, but there's nothing behind it. Given the times and the context, death in itself wasn't a huge signifier.
Other possible interpretations of Jordan: someone changeable, moving, "as weak as water." But they don't really work, especially in the context of a time of religious religious revival; there's no sense of crossing the Jordan to the promised land. Or perhaps there is; from Grace's POV, was Dr. Jordan the river she had to navigate to get to freedom?