Waterland: Swift's Recursive Novel- A Mosaic of Histories and Patterns

Justin Wickett 5/25/2004 Swift's Recursive Novel: A Mosaic of Histories and Patterns Throughout history, repeating patterns can be seen and analyzed. This idea of history repeating itself is essential in the novel Waterland, where Graham Swift shifts back and forth between different time periods to help Tom Crick's students understand history through their own personal experiences and relationships and through Crick's own personal and ancestral history. While Tom Crick repeats his personal history to his class, …

…of someone whose past history meant so much to them that they destroyed themselves when they found out that it was not what they had thought it to be. Without the use of patterns and the recursive style of writing in this book, Swift would not have been able to clearly make his points about history and would not have been able to use Crick's life as an example to relate back and forth to.