The Unpredictable Sea (Symbol)
The turbulent, powerful ocean in which Miles perceives both serenity and danger is a symbol for his dysfunctional relationship with his father. Early in the novel, Parrett writes that Harry gets seasick and so can't go out on the boat, while Miles has a much higher tolerance for the unsteady waters. The boys' relationships to the water reflect how they relate to Dad. While Harry spends most of his time avoiding Dad's abuse by roaming far from the ocean in the rural landscape or spending time with safe authority figures, Miles feels obligated to put up with Dad's variable mood and outbursts of violence. Miles also finds occasional peace at sea, particularly when the abalone catch is plentiful and he is able to leave work to surf with Joe. Ultimately, the symbolic connection between the threat of the sea and the father is brought together when Dad pushes Harry into the water during a life-threatening swell. In this scene, Dad's violence is matched by the violence of the ocean storm.
White Lilies (Symbol)
In Past the Shallows, white lilies symbolize mourning. While Mr. Roberts drives him home, Miles braces himself to pass the tree where his mother crashed her car and died. He is traumatized to see that someone has brought white lilies to the tree, as the flowers trigger his memory of how people brought white lilies to the tree immediately following her death as a gesture of condolence. George Fuller also has a vase of white lilies in his home, suggesting that he, as someone who knew Mum, may have been the one who brought the lilies on the tree to mark the anniversary of her death.
Nausea (Motif)
Early in the novel, the reader learns that Harry suffers from sea and car sickness. The motif of Harry's contextual nausea gains a deeper significance once Parrett depicts the connection between his sickness and his trauma. Having been in the car on the night his mother died, Harry gets car sick because he is trying to repress having to access his traumatic memory. Similarly, Harry's nausea on the boat speaks to the anxiety and danger he feels in his stomach when trapped in a context with Dad, an authority figure he cannot trust.
White Shark-Tooth Necklace (Symbol)
The white shark-tooth necklace that Miles and Harry find in Mum's car seat is a symbol of the truth of Mum's death. When they find the shark tooth among the parts of Mum's crashed vehicle, which Granddad stored in his garage, Miles and Harry recognize the necklace's significance but aren't immediately able to recall what exactly it means. Miles keeps the tooth and eventually gives it to Harry to wear while they go out on the boat during the swell. Dad discovers the necklace on Harry's neck and understands immediately that it belonged to Uncle Nick. Miles remembers how Nick gave him the necklace when he got in the car with Mum and the four of them set off for the town of Hobart. The tooth necklace provides the key to unlocking the full truth of what happened the night she died: once Miles makes the connection, he recalls that Dad pulled Nick from the vehicle and murdered him as revenge.
Repression (Motif)
Throughout Past the Shallows, characters repress the memories and emotions in an attempt to distance themselves from addressing the unpleasant reality of how their father treats them and how their mother died. Parrett establishes the motif early in the book when Miles reflects on the danger of the ocean and how Uncle Nick's body was found, stopping his thoughts before he relives the memory of his mother's car crash. Similarly, Harry becomes carsick as Aunty Jean's passenger on the road their mother died on, and he shuts his eyes and dissociates from the moment until it passes. As the novel progresses, Miles's traumatic memories surface more frequently and in greater detail. In the end, Parrett resolves the motif by having Miles finally accept the truth of his father's involvement in Mum's and Nick's deaths—a truth Miles had needed to repress because of his and Harry's reliance on Dad as their only living parent.
