Old Mill Road

Old Mill Road is a residential street in the summer community of Amity, Long Island, running along the shoreline and providing access to the beach where the novel's first shark attack occurs. It is a road lined with houses owned by summer residents, set behind grass-splotched dunes, and it becomes the initial site of the town's confrontation with the great white shark that will ultimately devastate the community.

Location and Setting

Old Mill Road is a coastal road in Amity, a small town on the south shore of Long Island. The road runs parallel to a long, straight stretch of beach so white that it shines, and the houses along it are set behind grass-splotched dunes. From these houses, lights cast yellow glimmers on the sand at night. The road itself offers no view of the beach; all that can be seen from it are the tops of the dunes, and every hundred yards or so one must stop and walk up a driveway to reach a point from which the beach is visible. The beach along Old Mill Road is private, accessible only through rights-of-way between houses, though many of these are filled with garages or privet hedges. The area is characterized by its summer population, with families who own summer homes coming out for weekends since the beginning of May, and tenants whose leases run from June 15 to September 15 unpacking and beginning to feel at home.

The First Attack

Old Mill Road is the site of the novel's opening event: the shark attack on Christine Watkins. On a moonless night in mid-June, a man and a woman step out onto the wooden porch of a house behind the dunes, scamper down the steps onto the sand, and after a brief sexual encounter on the cold sand, the woman goes for a swim while the man falls asleep. The woman, Christine Watkins, swims out into the water and is attacked and killed by the great white shark. Her body is discovered the next morning by Patrolman Len Hendricks, who finds her head, shoulders, part of an arm, and about a third of her trunk snarled within a clump of weed on the beach. Chief Martin Brody and Officer Hendricks recover the remains, and Brody identifies the cause of death as shark attack.

Community and Conflict

Old Mill Road becomes a symbol of the tension between Amity's summer residents and its year-round population. The road is where the Foote family, summer residents, are staying when the attack occurs, and it is to their house that Brody goes to investigate. The road is also where the Kintner family, another summer family, are staying when their six-year-old son Alexander is killed by the same shark while floating on a rubber raft. The beach along Old Mill Road is where the second attack occurs, and it is where Brody later posts officers to enforce the beach closure. The road represents the summer wealth that Amity depends on for its economic survival, and the attacks along it threaten to destroy the town's summer season.

Narrative Significance

Old Mill Road functions as a geographical anchor for the novel's central conflict. It is the location where the shark first reveals itself as a threat to the community, and it remains a recurring reference point throughout the story. The road is mentioned in connection with the economic pressures on the town, as the real estate market along Old Mill Road and nearby Scotch Road is particularly affected by the shark attacks. The road also serves as a setting for the community's response to the crisis, including the decision to close the beaches and the subsequent pressure from Mayor Larry Vaughan and other selectmen to reopen them. Old Mill Road ultimately represents the fragile boundary between the safety of the land and the danger of the sea, a line that the shark repeatedly crosses.