The third bank of the river- father's checked out

This rich and multifaceted story is narrated by a young boy who is longing for his father to return home. The reader learns from the young narrator that his father has ordered a canoe and plans to live in it. Although the young son describes his father as responsible and dutiful, his action suggests quite the opposite from a rational point of view. Amid all the pain and suffering the father causes his family, particularly his son, while virtually appearing untouched by their grief, would lead one to view this man as cruel or even insane.  However, Rosa's story could be, and I think was meant to be, interpreted on a a mystical level as well. Although, the author never gets inside of the father's head and the reader never learns what drove him to his decision, it is clear that his plan was deliberatiely and meticulously designed, the boat " was built to last."

Although the son convincingly describes his longing to see his father throughout the story, he ironically fails to rise to the occasion when the opportunity of reunification presents itself. This missed opportunity leads to his torturing himself for the rest of his life. However, I think the son not only takes his father's place, psychologically, but he also becomes his father through a psychic merging process. Through this merger, the son is driven to a kind of madness as the boundaries between them dissolve till finally the father ceases to exit, " Nobody ever saw or heard about him again." 

After the scene where the son runs away from the father, he describes, in my view, the symbolic location of the third bank: "when death comes I want them to take me and put me in a little boat in this perpetual water between the long shores; and I down the river, lost in the river, inside the river... the river..." (55). The repetition indicates a form of madness that leaves in the reader's imagination a picture of the son succeeding his father on the river drifting in a canoe "built to last." ( a twilight zone moment)


It took me some time to question this third bank idea, but when I did, I wondered how many banks a river has. Two banks came to mind, but really didn't know for sure. So I googled images of  riverbanks and two indeed are what I saw. Then I wondered what this third bank represented?  I knew at this point that it wasn't a physical structure; therefore, it must be an invisible one, and that led to its symbolic signification. It's crucial that the reader explores the symbolic meaning of the third bank for Rosa's story to be more fully understood. I also think this third bank has more than one symbolic location or meaning. I interpreted the third bank to simultaneously represent death, sanity, and the canoe itself as an extention of the river. The river is also symbolic of the passing of time. In the narrative the son observes the river constantly "renewing itself" while he himself deteriorates from age and illnesses, which I believe, are prematurely brought on by his obsession with his father. Ironically, he is concerned with his father's well being while neglecting his own. The more the narrator-son tells the reader about his father, the less reader knows about the father; however, a  fuller portrait of the narrator-son is fully blown.(This is  definitely a "Bartleby" story from a Latin American perspective.  I wonder if Rosa was influenced by Herman Melville's "Bartleby.")

Finally, regarding the relationship between the father and mother, I sensed a deep disatisfaction coming from both sides. The mother clearly seems frustrated and disappointed with the father. I inferred that the mother is annoyed at the father's level of commitment.  Although the son sets the stage by presenting his father as responsible and dutiful, he never mentions anything that indicates his father's love. (although being dutiful is a form of love, I think something else is going on here.) Perhaps underlying the mother's "ranting and raving," as narrated by the son, is a longing for her husband to be less dutiful and taciturn, and instead to be more affectionate and communicative. Overall, I intuitively sensed a father who wasn't emotionally present and an enraged mother who had been left with the burden of caring for the household, the children, and perhaps even the business. Therefore, I interpet the father's state of limbo on the river as a reflection of how he had been when he lived on land with his family. I also think the father repesents other men in general who collapse or shut down from the pressures and demands of society, and of family life. Moreover, the son's sacrifice in giving up his own life and refusal to see the truth about his father is a continuation of his childlike wearing of rose-tinted glasses to avoid  facing the deeper psychological realization of his father's emotional absence even before embarking on his self-imposed isolation.