Best of Week: Water in 'Life and Times of Michael K'

Throughout this week in English class, we have been discussing the book Life and Times of Michael K, mainly focusing on the text. Many interesting insights have been made about the story's context and content as this discussion has gone on. One insight that particularly stood out to me was made by our teacher, Mr. Allen. He pointed out the continual appearance of water throughout the story, and the significance that it had. After some discussion of this, we decided that water signified life and was often used in that way in Life and Times of Michael K. A point to back this finding up is something that I remembered from the beginning of the book, when Anna K was still living. She was sick in the hospital and Michael tried to give her water, but she couldn't swallow it. Soon after this event, she died. This is evidence of how water signified life in the story, because it shows that the lack of water signified a near death for Anna.