United States Senate

The United States Senate is presented as a national political institution and as the setting of The Senator’s career, influence, and presidential ambitions. Kelly Kelleher studied that career in her Brown University honors thesis; years later, the former senator’s political calculations become inseparable from a fatal accident and his fear of public disgrace. Around these events, the Senate’s promise of political advancement stands in sharp contrast to Kelly’s abandonment in the water and the patriotic spectacle continuing nearby.

Kelly Kelleher’s Study of the Senate

At Brown University, Kelly graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies and wrote a ninety-page senior honors thesis on The Senator. She researched his three Senate campaigns, his career in the chamber, his influence within the Democratic Party, and the possibility that he would be nominated for president. The project was not casual admiration: she worked hard, earned an A, and received nearly a page of handwritten praise and commentary from her adviser.

The thesis, written five years before the events on Grayling Island, had the subtitle “Jeffersonian Idealism and 'New Deal' Pragmatism: Liberal Strategies in Crisis.” Its formulation places the Senate within a history of competing political traditions and strategies. When Kelly meets The Senator at the party, she tells herself not to raise the subject; after a drink or two, however, she confesses that she wrote her thesis on him. Rather than respond with annoyance or embarrassment, he beams with pleasure. When she apologizes, assuming he must have heard similar praise thousands of times, he replies courteously and seriously that he has never heard it from her. Their exchange makes her scholarly attention a personal encounter as well as an account of his public career.

Senate Career and Presidential Prospects

By 1988, The Senator had been among the three leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. For political prudence, he withdrew and released his delegates in favor of his old friend, the Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. Dukakis then asked him to serve as his running mate; The Senator politely declined. These choices leave open the possibility of another presidential campaign: the narrator notes that there is always the next election, or the one beyond it, and that The Senator, though no longer young, is eleven years younger than George Bush.

The account therefore presents his Senate service not as a closed chapter but as a platform from which future national power might still be pursued. His withdrawal and refusal of the vice-presidential nomination are described as strategic decisions, not as an abandonment of political ambition. That prospect acquires a darker edge after the crash, when his panic turns not only to legal exposure but also to whether his party will ever nominate him and whether he will ever become president.

The Fourth of July and National Symbols

The Senate’s political world is placed beside the public rituals of Independence Day. On Grayling Island, families and guests gather for parties; fireworks are expected after dark, and the celebrations include the St. John family’s large American flag, flying from the tallest flagpole on Derry Road and perhaps on the island. Buffy describes her father as a patriot who served in the CIA for twenty years. Later, firecrackers crackle nearby beneath the same flag. These details make national identity visible as a shared performance of celebration, service, and allegiance.

The novel’s patriotic imagery persists even as Kelly drowns. The flag still flies overhead while the nearby celebration continues, and fireworks send red, white, and blue rockets into the night as The Senator, alive but terrified, flees the crash site. The contrast is not simply between politics and private life: the national spectacle carries on while Kelly is trapped beyond its reach. The holiday’s promise of collective belonging is set against her isolation in the black water and the Senate aspirant’s immediate concern with his own exposure.

Political Power in the Aftermath

The crash occurs after The Senator takes an unmarked, badly rutted road that has not been maintained and should have been officially closed. The account estimates from the skid marks and vehicle damage that the Toyota may have been traveling at about forty-five miles per hour; a collision with the narrow bridge ahead and a fall into the water might have produced a similar result. This is presented as speculation, not as a certainty that resolves responsibility. The road’s disrepair, the car’s speed, and the Senator’s actions form part of the circumstances against which he later tries to understand and explain the accident.

After escaping the sinking car, The Senator leaves Kelly behind. He reaches the highway and, still disheveled and injured, makes his way to a telephone booth near Post Beer & Wine. At first he gives the name Gerald Ferguson when calling Ray Annick at the St. John residence. When Ray answers, The Senator identifies himself, says there has been an accident, and tells him the girl is dead. He then claims that Kelly was drunk, became emotional, grabbed the wheel, and caused the car to swerve; he fears that he will be accused of manslaughter. Ray interrupts him, refuses to discuss the matter over the phone, and asks where he is so that he can come and get him.

In that moment, political calculation and personal panic converge. The Senator imagines the end of his prospects—never receiving his party’s nomination or being elected president—and fears exposure, mockery, and the loss of favor. The Senate thus signifies more than the institution in which he built his career: it represents the future he is desperate to preserve. Against that future stands the consequence he cannot undo: Kelly’s death and his decision to leave her in the car.