The Sea in Winter

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness, death, racism, and child abuse.

Maisie is the protagonist and first-person narrator of the story. She is a young Indigenous girl living in Seattle with her mother, stepfather, and brother. Maisie longs for a creative outlet and grew up dreaming of becoming a ballerina. However, after sustaining an ACL injury during class, she has to abandon her passion and contend with considerable emotional distress in the wake of this loss. At the start of the narrative, Maisie is tormented by feelings of frustration, guilt, and failure. She is reluctant to go to school and feels isolated in class. Dance was previously her main source of spiritual sustenance and meaning, and she used this passion to manage her emotions as well. Without the freedom to dance, she sees little meaning in her life, and her school grades are failing. The adult world feels frustrating and confusing, and she avoids conversations with her parents and lashes out in anger. Due to her turmoil, she cannot feel their love and believes that they do not understand her pain. As she focuses on her physical therapy and longs to return to dance school auditions in the summer, she ignores her mental trauma and avoids her pain, feeling hopeless and disconnected from her family and friends.

Apart from her personal struggles, Maisie is also impacted by familial trauma. Her parents were both Indigenous but are from different tribes. Maisie characterizes her parents’ relationship before her father’s death as a “short and tragic romance” (24). Her father was deployed in Afghanistan and died in action on Maisie’s first birthday. This event emphasizes that tragedy is part of Maisie’s family history, and because she is affected by her mother’s sadness, her father’s death has also traumatized her. Maisie also knows about the struggles of her Makah ancestors against colonization, and this history intensifies her exasperation with the adult world. Maisie recalls her mother’s forcible removal from her homeland and the elimination of the whaling tradition. Through her family’s histories, Maisie absorbs the impact of injustice and politics that are “too much” for her to handle. As Maisie struggles to make sense of her emotions and thinks that the adult world is “uncaring,” she embarks on a healing journey that ultimately restores her hope and optimism.

Maisie’s journey revolves around her reconnection with her family and her multifaceted Indigenous heritage. Jack, her stepfather, is a caring and protective father who considers Maisie his own daughter. He relates the teachings of his ancestors during the family road trip to the Olympic Peninsula (the Makah homeland), and this event is a turning point for Maisie, who connects with the natural world and learns about the history of the Elwha River and the Duwamish tribe. During the trip, Maisie starts reconnecting with her family and her Indigenous identity. The trip provides Maisie with “heart medicine” and empowers her inner self, fortifying her just before a second knee injury forces her to confront her inner trauma.

As Maisie experiences a new trial in the hospital, her mother’s support proves crucial to her recovery. Angie encourages Maisie to “move forward” and “find a new passion” (189), convincing her to make new friends and find different creative outlets. Maisie is inspired by her family’s “stories of resistance and triumph” and feels empowered to overcome her own trauma (232), Embracing New Visions of the Future.

As therapy helps Maisie deal with her inner distress, she finally understands her “symptoms of anxiety and depression” (221), and she fosters a new interest in creative writing and makes new friends while volunteering in the library. Through the act of writing, Maisie reimagines her future and regains new hope. In the end, the family’s trip to Elwha River signifies a new, positive start for Maisie.