The Sea
The sea is personified in this poem, making it perhaps the central character. It is described as "cruel," with "angry water." Yet, despite ascribing it these motivations, Awoonor also portrays the sea as a relentless, almost robotic force acting out of a ravenous instinct to destroy. The "eternal hum of the living sea" expresses this instinctive, thoughtless side of the ocean, portraying it as an almost unconscious force. Because the sea has these dual, contradictory aspects, the devastated townspeople aren't easily able to fight it or mentally contextualize its destruction. It acts like a malicious enemy and an unfeeling natural force at the same time.
Aku
The central human character in the story is a woman named Aku. She is a mother of two who weeps in the aftermath of the flood. Her reaction reduces the outsize damage of the flood to a human scale, making its emotional impacts feel digestible and immediate. Aku also embodies the deep emotional damage wrought by the disaster. She isn't merely upset about the loss of possessions. Rather, her entire worldview feels compromised because her gods and her ancestors have failed to help her. Thus for Aku, the natural disaster becomes a crisis of faith as well as a material and practical crisis.
Adena
Adena is the second human character introduced, albeit briefly, prior to the close of the poem. She has lost "trinkets" in the flood, and though the word "trinket" implies that the possessions are humble, they are extremely important to her. The speaker explains that they are "her dowry and her joy." Therefore, she has lost the items that simultaneously gave her a sense of emotional fulfillment and offered her a practical route to marriage and family. Adena's situation offers a glimpse at how the loss of possessions can mean much more than simply loss of wealth, since her "trinkets" hold so much significance.
