The Sky Beneath Her Themes
by Mary Ellen Taylor
Beneath its surface of shipwrecks and hidden pasts, this novel wrestles with the cost of starting over. It asks how much of yourself you have to abandon to survive, and whether running from history ever really works. The ocean takes and gives. Coins become promises. Identities shift like tides.
On this page you will find each major theme backed by concrete moments: the ocean as danger and freedom, identity through new names like Naida becoming Gertrude, trust shattered when Sigrid leads Alfred to Gertrude, loss driving Tula's grief for her mother, resilience in Gertrude's escape and miscarriage, and secrets like Dr. Brooks's spy past. Symbols include the coin as luck and legacy, the Oceanus wreck binding life and death, the manuscript revealing hidden history, and water as both origin and escape.
Major Themes in The Sky Beneath Her
The ocean as both dangerous and liberating
The ocean is consistently portrayed as a dual force: it claims lives (Tula's mother, Gertrude's near-drowning) but also offers freedom, solace, and homecoming. Characters feel its seductive pull even as they fear its power, and learning to trust the water becomes a key to healing.
- Tula reflects that the ocean claimed her mother yet swimming laps in the pool gave her relief (Chapter 2: Chapter One: Tula).
- Tula says the ocean is 'so beautiful. So dangerous' and the waves tease her (Chapter 20: Chapter Nineteen: Tula).
- Gertrude feels the ocean's whispered words after childbirth: 'Alfred will never have him. He's a child of the ocean' (Chapter 38: Chapter Thirty-Seven: Gertrude).
Identity and reinvention
Characters constantly adopt new names and personas to escape their pasts or to forge new futures. Gertrude transforms from Naida to Gertrude Werner to Margaret; Tula sheds her identity as Dave's wife and reconnects with her own roots; Dr. Brooks hides multiple passports. Reinvention is a survival strategy.
- Gertrude has used multiple aliases (Ingrid Swenson, Johanna Benson, Gertrude Werner) and scrubs her Austrian accent to avoid detection (Chapter 4: Chapter Three: Gertrude).
- Gertrude practices the name 'Sigrid Stein' so it rolls off her tongue, planning to impersonate her (Chapter 32: Chapter Thirty-One: Gertrude).
- In the epilogue, Gertrude accepts the new name Margaret to sound American (Chapter 45: Epilogue: Gertrude).
Trust and betrayal
The narrative is steeped in suspicion: characters fear being deceived by allies, lovers, and even strangers. Sigrid betrays Gertrude by leading Alfred to her; Naida fears the selkie woman has betrayed her; Tula distrusts Nathan at first. Trust is a fragile commodity that is tested throughout.
- Naida prays the selkie has not betrayed her as she flees along the Danube (Chapter 1: Prologue).
- Sigrid admits to Gertrude that she needed to maintain William's trust by telling him about Gertrude (Chapter 43: Chapter Forty-Two: Gertrude).
- Tula is wary of Dr. Brooks despite his kindness, and later suspects his intentions (Chapter 25: Chapter Twenty-Four: Gertrude mentions she suspects he is a spy).
Loss and grief
The story is driven by characters grappling with profound loss: Tula mourns her mother's drowning, Gertrude flees an abusive marriage and miscarries, Nathan's parents drowned. Grief manifests as avoidance, anxiety, and nightmares, but also as a catalyst for confronting the past.
- Tula relives her mother's drowning and the end of her marriage, haunted by 'the ghosts I'd kept at a distance for years' (Chapter 2: Chapter One: Tula).
- Gertrude has a flashback of being branded by her husband Alfred, a lasting trauma (Chapter 7: Chapter Six: Gertrude).
- Tula has a nightmare about drowning in the ocean the night before the dive (Chapter 20: Chapter Nineteen: Tula).
Survival and resilience
Characters endure harrowing circumstances—war, abuse, shipwreck, personal failure—and repeatedly choose to fight, escape, or rebuild. Gertrude's physical and psychological journey to freedom, Tula's decision to dive the Oceanus, and Naida's stabbing of William all demonstrate stubborn determination to survive.
- Gertrude resolves: 'I would die fighting now. I would remain free. And this child would never be sent back to Alfred' (Chapter 29: Chapter Twenty-Eight: Gertrude).
- Tula dives to the Oceanus wreck despite years of fear, letting go of her mother's necklace (Chapter 41: Chapter Forty: Tula).
- Dr. Brooks tells Gertrude, 'You're a survivor,' and she reflects she must change her view of herself (Chapter 45: Epilogue: Gertrude).
Secrets and the past resurfacing
Hidden histories emerge throughout the novel: Dr. Brooks's spy past, Tula's mother's secret cancer, the mystery of the Oceanus survivors. The past is never truly buried; it reappears in documents, photographs, and chance encounters that force characters to reassess what they thought they knew.
- Tula discovers a hidden floor compartment containing multiple passports from Dr. Brooks and a secret letter from her mother (Chapter 35: Chapter Thirty-Four: Tula).
- Lex Green reveals that Tula's mother had a brain tumor and hid it from her (Chapter 34: Chapter Thirty-Three: Tula).
- Gertrude finds a folder of photographs of herself in William's cabin, proving she was watched long before the voyage (Chapter 30: Chapter Twenty-Nine: Gertrude).
Symbols and Motifs
The coin
A talisman of luck, connection, and legacy. Coins are given as gifts, used as charms, and passed down through generations; releasing a coin into the ocean represents letting go and trusting fate.
- Tula's mother left her a coin necklace before her final dive (Chapter 2: Chapter One: Tula).
- Dr. Brooks gives Roman coins to Sigrid and Mrs. DuPont, saying they grant wishes (Chapter 10: Chapter Nine: Sigrid).
- Tula unfastens her necklace of sea glass and coin and lets it float into the Oceanus wreck as an offering (Chapter 41: Chapter Forty: Tula).
- At the end, Mr. Brooks gives Tula a coin that matches the one she lost at the Oceanus (Chapter 44: Chapter Forty-Three: Tula).
The Oceanus ship
The wreck of the Oceanus symbolizes the entanglement of life and death, memory and history. It is the physical site where Tula's mother perished, where Gertrude survived, and where secrets lie submerged. Diving to it becomes an act of confronting the past.
- Tula reflects on the Oceanus disaster: a storm, a U-boat torpedo, and the explosion (Chapter 5: Chapter Four: Tula).
- Nathan is making a film about the wreck and plans to dive again (Chapter 8: Chapter Seven: Tula).
- Tula finally dives to the Oceanus wreck and releases her mother's necklace there (Chapter 41: Chapter Forty: Tula).
The manuscript
The partial and later complete manuscript Dr. Brooks wrote about the Oceanus represents the hidden story that must be uncovered. It holds clues to the past—passenger lists, crew accounts—and connects Tula to her mother's and great-grandmother's histories.
- Mr. Brooks gives Tula a partial manuscript about the Oceanus, which she starts reading (Chapter 2: Chapter One: Tula).
- Tula discovers the rest of the manuscript hidden in a box at Dr. Brooks's house (Chapter 23: Chapter Twenty-Two: Tula).
- Tula duplicates the manuscript and donates the original to the historical center (Chapter 44: Chapter Forty-Three: Tula).
The river / water as origin and escape
Waterways—the Danube, the ocean—are where characters begin their journeys and where they seek refuge. The river is the site of Naida's discovery as a baby and her escape route; the ocean is both a trap and a means to freedom.
- Naida runs along the Danube riverbank at night, hoping for a boat to escape Vienna (Chapter 1: Prologue).
- Naida was found as a baby naked on the riverbank by Elke (Chapter 1: Prologue).
- Gertrude tosses a wedding coin into the Danube four years earlier, symbolizing a break with her husband (Chapter 7: Chapter Six: Gertrude).
- Tula dips her hand in the water and later dives into the ocean, reconnecting with her past (Chapter 27: Chapter Twenty-Six: Tula).