Summary
The chapter “Halflead Bay” is a coming-of-age story centered on a high school student named Jamie, who tries to balance sports and his social life while struggling with family problems. Jamie is cheered by his principal at a school assembly for scoring the winning goal at Halflead High’s latest football match. Although everyone at the school seems to be impressed, Jamie notes that his father is not. Shortly after the assembly, a girl named Alison Fischer approaches him and flirts with him. Although Jamie has had a crush on her for ages, he is wary of talking to her because she had dated a guy named Dory whom Jamie is afraid of. Dory and his sidekick, Lester, were rumored to have beaten up Wilhelm, a kid who tried to get with Alison earlier that year. Jamie is afraid to keep talking to Alison, but he tells her to visit him at the jetty if she really wants to see him.
After talking to Alison, Jamie goes home to his house which overlooks the bay; he lives there with his mother, father, and ten-year-old brother, Michael. Halflead Bay is a town that was dominated by the fishing industry until the bay was overfished. Now, the town’s biggest industry is dying and people in the town complain that it constantly smells like fish. Although Jamie’s dad had continued to make his living fishing in the bay, he stopped once Jamie’s mother was diagnosed with MS five years ago. After the diagnosis, Jamie’s mom slowly stopped engaging her usual hobby of painting landscape scenes of the bay. Now, their family life revolves around taking care of Jamie’s mom. Their family also experiences conflict because Jamie’s dad is set on moving to the inland city of Maroomba, where Jamie’s dad thinks that Jamie’s mom can get better treatment. Jamie's mom is set against the idea of moving, so Jamie’s dad encourages Jamie and Michael to tell their mom that they want to move.
Shortly after going home from school, Jamie and Michael go down and fish at the jetty with Jamie’s friend, Cale. Cale is a twenty-year-old shaggy surfer who smokes pot and moved to the area after high school. While fishing, Alison shows up at the jetty. Jamie is surprised but follows her away from the jetty up the bluff to the old courthouse. There, Jamie and Alison kiss, and she invites him to a party on Thursday night. Jamie wants to go further, but Alison complains that he smells like fish.
On Thursday night, Jamie goes to the party to which Alison invited him. Alison arrives late, at which point Jamie is already drunk, and they walk down to the sea. Jamie asks Alison about Dory, and he tells her that he thinks she could do better than Dory. Alison seems sad by this and says that she feels like things are different with Jamie. Jamie convinces Alison to stay. Then, there’s a flashback of the last time when Jamie went fishing with his family. In the flashback, he reels in a large fish and, in the process, catches the hook on a seagull. The seagull is suffering and bloody, and Jamie’s dad tells him to put it out of its misery. Jamie can’t bring himself to do it, so his mom does. After the flashback, Jamie wakes up by the sea, feeling as if the night had been a dream. He’s also scared of what Dory might do to him.
Jamie runs into Cale, who says that Lester told him to tell Jamie that Dory will fight Jamie on Monday. There’s a thunderstorm the night before the fight; during the thunderstorm, Michael tells Jamie that he knows about the fight. Jamie is terrified by the fight and warns his mom about what’s going to happen. Jamie goes through school on Monday dreading the fight; however, he’s saved by his principal, who asks him to come into his office at the end of the day. There, Jamie’s coach and parents sit; his coach tells him that he doesn’t have to worry about Dory anymore. However, Jamie’s mom tells Jamie that she wants the boys to settle it on their own.
Once Jamie gets home, he’s conflicted about what he should do and ends up walking down to Dory’s house. There, Jamie sees Dory, Dory’s uncle, Lester, and Alison. Jamie tries to fight Dory and is beaten up; Alison laughs at first. Jamie’s dad and brother appear halfway through the fight, and Jamie realizes that Michael must have followed him. Jamie’s dad tries to break up the fistfight and ends up getting punched. Dory realizes that he has crossed a line and stops fighting. The story concludes with Jamie, his father, and his brother walking back.
Analysis
A notable stylistic difference between "Halflead Bay" and the three previous short stories in The Boat is the shift in narrative voice. While "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," "Cartagena," and "Meeting Elise" are all told through first-person narration (using words like "I" and "my" to describe the actions of the main character), "Halflead Bay" uses third-person narration (using words like "he" and "his" for actions of the main character). This narrative style would specifically be described as third-person limited (rather than third-person omniscient) because the narration describes the thoughts, emotions, and perceptions of the main character, Jamie, but not those of other characters.
"Halflead Bay" is also notable for being the longest story within The Boat. While the other short stories range from 15 to around 50 pages, "Halflead Bay" is almost 70 pages long. In fact, "Halflead Bay" might even be considered a novella or novelette rather than a short story. According to the Author Learning Center, novellas generally range from 20,000 to 49,999 words, while the lesser-known novelette ranges from 7,500 to 19,999 words. Short stories technically contain about 1,000 to 7,499 words, which works out to around 25 pages or fewer, meaning The Boat is actually a collection of short stories, novelettes, and perhaps one novella.
A parallel is created between Jamie's mother in "Halflead Bay" and Henry in the preceding short story, "Meeting Elise." Both are visual artists whose bodies are failing, which inhibits their ability to produce art. While Henry was unable to produce art due to cancer, grief, and trauma, Jamie's mother is inhibited by MS, or multiple sclerosis. Le chooses not to give details about the disease or even use its full name. For reference, multiple sclerosis is described by the Mayo Clinic as "a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord...Eventually, the disease can cause permanent damage or deterioration of the nerves." By not giving these details, the reader empathizes with Jamie's experience of learning about the disease by watching his mother experience it.
Masculinity is a major theme in this short story. Le shows how Jamie's ideas of masculinity were shaped by his father through the flashback Jamie has while talking with Alison. Jamie recalls accidentally hooking a seagull while fishing with his family when he was young. His father tells Jamie to kill the seagull, and he will not allow anyone to do it for Jamie. Finally, Jamie's mom kills the bird, but Jamie recalls that his mom didn't say anything to him or even look at him, even though he was crying openly. This parallels how, at the end of the story, Jamie feels that he must physically fight Dory to uphold his masculinity. Even though his father tries to convince him that he doesn't have to fight Dory, Jamie's notions of masculinity have already been ingrained in him, and it is clear that he would not be able to move on emotionally without a physical resolution.
It is sometimes said that a good author can make a setting into a character. This means that the author imbues the setting of a story with specific importance to the plot and may even give it a personality of sorts. This is certainly the case in "Halflead Bay": the importance of the setting is signaled from the very title of the story. Though the main conflict of the story is Jamie's attraction to Alison and fear of Dory beating him up, minor conflicts regarding the story's setting swirl around in his head. Jamie's family is locked in a standoff about whether to move away from the town they love, and Jamie often discusses how the economy of the town has been influenced by foreign business interests. Making the setting into a character makes the story more vivid and interesting for the reader, which is particularly important for the longest story in the collection.
