Phillips Academy
Black Water (Joyce Carol Oates Edition)Phillips Academy is the school that connects The Senator and Arthur Kelleher through a shared elite educational background. The novel mentions it briefly, as a possible social link between the two men that remains unspoken during The Senator’s conversation with Kelly Kelleher.
Identity and Background
The Senator attended Phillips Academy after Arthur Kelleher had graduated. The school is thus part of a parallel educational trajectory: both men came from similar social backgrounds, although the text does not describe their time there or establish that they knew each other at school.
The School as a Point of Connection
On the Fourth of July, Kelly met The Senator at a party after Ray Annick introduced them. She initially regarded him skeptically, seeing a famous politician who seemed always to be campaigning as he vigorously greeted people. In the conversation that followed, she learned of his educational and social similarities to her family: he had gone to Phillips Academy, then to Harvard University for his undergraduate and law degrees; her father had attended Amherst College and later Columbia University. The Senator and the Kellehers likely knew many of the same people, but neither he nor Kelly chose to pursue the subject amid their meandering conversation.
Narrative Significance
Phillips Academy provides a concise marker of social proximity without turning that proximity into a relationship. The school places The Senator within a world familiar to the Kellehers, yet the shared background does not become the subject of a meaningful exchange. Its mention quietly contrasts inherited social connection with the immediate, uncertain encounter between Kelly and The Senator that occupies the rest of the narrative.
