Giant octopuses

Giant octopuses are powerful sea creatures associated with the Sea People as both playmates and allies. Their appearances place them within the Sea People’s communal life and show their capacity to act alongside them against human attackers.

Companions at the Midsummer Gathering

As Sherzad anticipates the Sea People’s return to their gathering on Midsummer Day, she imagines the children playing with tame giant octopuses and teasing dolphins. The creatures belong to the gathering’s scene of family reunion and play, rather than appearing only as threats or objects of human control.

Allies Against the Ship

In a later attack, Sherzad and her siblings break apart the bottom of a ship, and the Sea People prevent the men who jump into the water from surfacing. Singing in triumph, they call their allies. An octopus rises into the moonlight, its tentacles reaching around the mainmast, and inexorably pulls the ship down into the depths.

Role in the Story

The contrast between the tame giant octopuses at play and the octopus that helps sink a ship gives the creatures more than one place in the Sea People’s world. They are present in its imagined future of communal celebration and in its violent struggle against human assault. Their intervention makes the Sea People’s victory a collective action involving allies from the depths, not only the people who have survived the attack.