49 pages • 1 hour read
Kevin HenkesOlive's Ocean
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Challenged Books and the Representation of Sex
A challenged book means a person or a group has tried to remove or limit the readership of a particular book. In 2007, the American Library Association (ALA) named Olive’s Ocean the third most challenged book of the year (“Top 10 Most Challenged Books and Frequently Challenged Books Archive.” American Library Association). According to the ALA, the reason for challenging Henkes’s novel centers on “offensive language” and “sexually explicit” content.
The book contains one curse word. After Vince returns from sailing, Martha tries to gauge what he knows about the kiss, and Vince calls Martha “a shitty mind reader” (157). Vince also uses the word “piss,” and he and Martha occasionally call each other mean names. Vince’s character is also associated with the sexually explicit content in the novel. At Cape Cod, Martha witnesses her parents kissing and smiling one morning. Martha thinks, “If Vince had been around he would have said that his parents were exhibiting MSB. Morning Sex Behavior” (64).
Additionally, after Martha holds hands with Jimmy, she has trouble sleeping. Henkes’s narrator says, “She woke many times throughout the night—her arms prickly and at odd angles, the sheet twisted tightly around her ankles, the pillow on the floor” (130). The image isn’t sexually explicit, but this subtle representation of female puberty and desire is another underlying reason the book has been challenged. However, the book doesn’t contain graphic representations of sex or sexual behavior. In this way, Henkes’s novel differs from Judy Blume’s bestselling and controversial middle-grade book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), in which middle-school girls regularly and bluntly discuss their growing bodies and curiosity about sex.
The videotaped kiss presents another difficulty. As Henkes published the book in 2001, it predates the #MeToo movement and the increased awareness about consent and sexual power dynamics. Read in a contemporary context, Jimmy’s trick is more than bullying or a cruel form of deceit: It signals abuse and links to how people can use media to embarrass and shame others. In the novel, the incident deeply bothers Martha, but it doesn’t traumatize her, and thanks to Tate, Jimmy can’t circulate the video. However, Henkes emphasizes Jimmy’s misconduct by having Vince and Tate separate themselves from him after he records the kiss. The story indicates that young people can innately grasp that recording a romantic moment without consent is harmful.
Literary Context: Exploring Identity in YA Fiction
The topic of identity occurs frequently in books for young adults, but Henkes’s novel compounds Martha’s lack of defined self by making Olive, not Martha, the titular character. Though Martha is the main character and the protagonist of the story, Henkes gives the spotlight to Olive as a way to demonstrate Martha’s self-abnegation and the impact that Olive has on Martha’s sense of self. Martha has many selves in the sense that she’s the product of the different people in her life, including Olive, whose spirit Martha intentionally maintains.
In Kate DiCamillo's novel for young readers, Beverly, Right Here (2019), Beverly Tapinski, the 14-year-old protagonist, is the titular character, yet, like Martha, she neglects to have a defined identity. She runs away from her home and friends, and she grows an identity inseparable from other people’s. Martha has a close bond with Godbee, and Beverly develops a deep connection with an older woman, Iola. Beverly and Iola’s dynamic also mirrors Martha and Olive’s relationship. Iola isn’t dead, but Beverly agrees to drive her around in exchange for Iola giving her a place to stay. Martha strives to bring the ocean to Olive, and Beverly brings Iola to places in her Florida town.
Louise Fitzhugh’s novel Harriet the Spy (1964) also addresses the theme of selflessness. Harriet M. Welsch is 11—a year younger than Martha—but, like Martha, Harriet is devoted to writing. While Martha loses herself in the Olive persona she creates in her story, Harriet abandons herself to a spy identity. Spying consumes Harriet, and after school, she goes on missions and records what she sees in a journal. The spy identity requires sacrifice, as Harriet devotes herself to the activity, and it becomes the priority in her life. Like Martha and Beverly, Harriet has a close bond with an older woman, her caretaker Ole Golly, who teaches Harriet to display selflessness by publicly apologizing to her friends and classmates. Characters like Harriet, Beverly, and Martha indicate that being perceptive and open to self-discovery can help a person solidify their identity.
