When the story opens, we already know Joel’s dad is mentally ill. He spends three weeks in the hospital, he’s given two bottles of medication for it, and he received electroshock therapy before the story started. The disorder is never given, but we’re told it has some aspect of despair to it. But in the writing itself, it’s hard to see the father as mentally ill. We’re told multiple times that he is, but the man doesn’t seem debilitated by it. Not the extent that would need electroshock treatment. It’s a rare treatment for bipolar and schizophrenia nowadays, and it wasn’t all that common in 2000 either; Dr. Morris wouldn’t have used it if it wasn’t necessary to help stabilize him. But since Joel’s dad doesn’t seem to think it worked, and he doesn’t seem different to Joel, it’s interesting that he never actually seems to show signs of illness. He returns to his Pentecostal roots, which clearly upsets his wife, and he starts scuba diving again. When he returns to work, he doesn’t seem particularly unstable or unable to care for himself. The story’s fixation on his illness regardless could be part of Joel’s narration. Joel is worried about his dad, that he might get sick again, which I think motivates him to follow his father to church. And since Joel doesn’t understand much about his dad’s illness, it makes sense that he’d be concerned about his dad’s behavior.
The story also contains a lot of parallels. Joel’s father starts scuba diving again, and he has half an hour’s worth of oxygen in his air tank. Before his hospitalization, he was found crying and clutching a model of the oxygen atom. Similarly, he has a chemical imbalance in his brain, “too much salt”, which he fears he might have passed on to his son. Not taking the prescribed medication wouldn’t have helped. Joel sneaks into his father’s church, though, and sees him receive the oil to be cleansed and healed. The priest pulls out a snake, though we never learn what he does with it. The coroner claims that the rapture of the deep can give a mesmerizing effect when it fills the brain with excess nitrogen. It makes you wonder about the very end: when Joel’s father pulled off his mask in the depths of the reservoir, was he seeking that balance?
Hey Isra!
It’s interesting to me that you place the setting of the story in 2000. I have to admit I’ve read it a number of times now, and I always imagined it as taking place in the mid-80’s, if not earlier. It’s also interesting to me that you say it’s hard to see the father in the story as mentally ill. Why do you think that is?