Beware of Drowning

Baptism is the symbolic death a rebirth of an individual and is typically known to have a religious connotation that relates back to biblical stories. Depending in what happens during the baptism, how it is done, and what the aftermath has in store for the character, the survival or death during the submergence in water will give foreshadowing to the rest of the story. If they do not reemerge from the water, the tale may contain further detail about the character’s strife and rebirth in a new life. If they happen to emerge, how they surface and what they do afterwards will illustrate in symbolic meaning of the blessing by water.

                There does not have to be a physical submergence of the body for the event to count as a baptism or rebirth. Simply crossing the body over a source of water or being touched by droplets can display the healing and cleansing properties of water. Just as the idea of baptism can be looked upon from many viewpoints, the character can have many different encounters and experiences during their baptism. Fire, just like in Fahrenheit 451, can be cleansing, leveling, and a renewing element just as water is. Even though its powers are more destructive and seen as an evil presence, it can bless characters and their surroundings by bringing things into a new life. Relating back to the liquid baptism, once Neo takes the red pill in The Matrix, he awakens inside of this little pod with wires attached to him. The wires are snapped off and he is ejected from his fluid filled pod into the sewer below, like being put down into the blessing water. He was completely submerged with no strength to fight back. Neo, being weak and unable to support his own body weight is pulled forth from the water by a giant mechanical claw to be resurrected and given new birth. He is brought to a hospital where they care for him and nurse him back to strength, much like a baby at the hospital being born for the first time. Neo’s rebirth cleansed his mind and body of his past, giving him a new start in a distopian alter-reality.

                Baptisms can kill a character due to drowning or struggles during the process. If the character just so happens to pass, they are given a new beginning just as if they had survived but in a new world. There, they can be faced with new problems that can be crucial to the characters development and learning experience. There is no limitation to the meaning or the usage of symbolic baptism. I believe that for a character to be cleaned and start a new path, they must let go of some past struggle and be faced with new obstacles and challenges. These events are the crossing of the threshold for a new adventure and page in the story. Rivers, oceans, rain, snow, and alien plasma can all be used to clean characters bodies and minds. Whether it is obviously stated or must be reexamined after the conclusion of the story, a symbolic baptism of any character can bring them a new life style and a previously unknown outlook on their lives even if they did not intend for these changes to be brought upon them. 

Chapter 18: If she comes up, its baptism