My Analysis of “The Scar” by Jane Dotchin

“The Scar,” written by Jane Dotchin, tells a brief but meaningful encounter of destiny, when two people find each other a long time after an accident has marked their lives. Dotchin describes what is going on in the present, and adds flashbacks to describe the accident that happened in the past. In the past, the narrator - we never learn the gender of the narrator - was playing with his or her brother when he or she accidentally drowned in a swirling whirlpool in a river. Dotchin tells how the mother rescues the narrator and gives him or her “the kiss of the life” to save the narrator’s life. The narrator’s brother tells him/her that he/she looks like “..an astronaut floating in space” as the narrator was floating underneath the water, because practically the narrator was close to death until the mother saves his/her life. Her child’s near-death event marks the mother’s life, so she decides put her child in swimming class where the narrator meets the coach for the first time. The coach has his own style to educate new swimmers, which helps students to learn in a “funny” way and get rid of their fear. Unfortunately his own style brings death to narrator’s mother. Now, in the present day some 15 years later, they are together in a waterfall exploring the fear of the coach, who does not realize that the narrator never forgot his face, and of course never forgot that he accidentally led to the death of the narrator’s mother. Subtly the narrator takes the coach to explore his own fears without telling him who he/she is or that they know each other from the past. In the end, the coach finds out that they know each other and that the narrator is that child who lost his/her mother in a fatal accident, for which the coach feels responsible. 

The theme of this tragic story is how human beings feel the necessity to blame others in their grief, even when there may be no one to blame, and how at the same time, they are able to forgive. However, to find this forgiveness, human beings need to go through some steps. First, in the story the narrator feels angry and feels that the coach is guilty of the mother’s death all those years ago. “Fifteen years changes a seven- year-old a lot more than a forty-year-old” and then says” I recognise him but he doesn’t me,” like he/she requires that the coach recognise him/her because the narrator knows that the coach would feel terrible. Second, the narrator needs to see fear in the coach, and for this reason he/she brings the coach through a difficult pathway in the waterfall unnecessarily. The narrator justifies this action and says “I am not sending him the easy way. It's not exactly dangerous, but it's unnecessary to go through the fall” and “I send him that way because it’s more of a thrill.” The narrator needs to see coach afraid, just like when he/she was in that pool as a child because now the characters are inverted; the narrator is the coach and the coach just a mortal human learning something like the narrator was before, with a bit of fear and excitement. The narrator gives coach encouragement to continue like the coach used to give the narrator encouragement when he/she felt afraid of swimming in the other side of the pool. The narrator is waiting for this moment, and he/she says, “It’s a perfect moment” and “He is smiling” to describe how the narrator feels “it is the perfect moment” to make the coach feel miserable, just after his excitement and happiness of conquering the waterfall; perhaps he does this because he still blames to coach for what happened, and wants him to feel what he/she felt those years ago, and probably still feels. Third, the step of the forgiveness comes just when the narrator has gone through these feelings, which we can infer because of the way the story ends. The narrator bundles coach up and they are sitting, “holding hands, tight” while they are looking down to the pool feeling pain for the unfortunate events. This makes us feel that both are lost, because they are traumatized but at the same time, they win. I feel that the narrator forgives the coach even though they will live with this memory for the rest of their lives. 

The story is presented by first-person narration, which helps the reader to feel more that the reader is witnessing a personal event, as if we were living the story. This may also be one reason why we never learn the gender of the narrator, so that it may be easier for readers, male and female, to feel identified with this character and be able to see the story through the narrator’s eyes. The story does not have a chronological plot because the author brings us the narrator’s past with flashbacks, which constantly show us where and why the two characters met for the first time, and why the narrator never forgets the coach. Even though the plot is not chronological, the plot helps the reader understand what happens and why. In addition, the plot gives a rich characteristic of the two principal characters and the way the coach teaches, which is important to know in order to understand why the narrator acts the way he/she does in the waterfall. The scenes from the past which are lived as flashbacks are often mirrored in the present, but with the roles of the characters inverted - the narrator becoming the coach and the coach becoming the student. For example, the young narrator wins a medal for swimming 25 meters, and the coach climbs the 25 meter waterfall. This also points to how people can repeat cycles of trauma, especially when one has not forgiven. The author describes two settings, one in the past and the other in the present. In the present they are in a waterfall, referred to in the story as “scar”, which is a symbol is of the narrator’s pain and suffering. Also, through all the story the author uses the duck as a symbol which denotes maternal care, which was the reason why the mother died, and the trauma that the narrator has after the loss of his/her mother. The way that Dotchin describes the setting and the comparison that she uses helps the reader to understand more clearly what is going on in the story. The literary language that Dotchin uses was amazing, such as the way she describes someone who has drowned is very creative and subtle.  

In this literary piece, it is very interesting how Jane Dotchin describes two scenes which enrich this wonderful story because she makes a connection between two times of life without confusing the reader. Even though the story is very sad, the way she describes it makes it a wonderful piece of literature. Therefore Dotchin brings the reflection of how a mother gives everything for her children, but also she brings clearly how someone can be affected by death and tries to look for guilt or blame, but in the same way can find forgiveness in murky waters. Therefore, the author closed the story with “the water coils and boils into the whorls from the pouring waterfall,” but they are together holding hands looking this water. 

The story “The Scar” gives a reflection of life, of loss and how it is important to confront grief, anger, and trauma, and move toward forgiveness in order to learn to live with it. Sometimes it is not possible to erase these things that happen, and even when there is someone to blame, it would often not make up for what was lost - just like coach could not bring the narrator’s mother back to life. However, people carry these scars around and learn to conquer them, just as coach conquered the “scar” of the waterfall by climbing up it with the narrator’s help. Many things in the past flashbacks in the story were reflected later in the present scenes, a way of showing that people carry around these scars even years later, and sometimes repeat stories again and again as a way of trying to process them. This story’s ending, where both characters sit down together supporting one another, is a poignant ending that gives the reader hope that they will indeed heal their scars and learn to live life with them.