Elixir. Natural. Uncontrollable. Kidd often incorporates water into major events in Sarah and Handful’s lives such as Handful’s bathtub rebellion, Sarah’s swim in the ocean, and Handful’s escape to freedom. The water in the copper bathtub represented Handful’s small revolt. Sarah even said, “it seemed like an act of rebellion, an act of usurpation” (114). It was Handful’s own way of obtaining a little bit of freedom and power over slavery. When Sarah swam in the ocean for the first time, she gained freedom for herself because she did not have to listen to anyone else’s opinions of her (183). Perhaps the last scene where Kidd uses water is the most important. She uses the ocean to represent both Sarah and Handful’s freedom: Sarah has broken ties to her family and Handful is finally free from slavery (359). Water is something natural, so I think that Kidd is trying to show us how inevitable and pure freedom is. It is necessary to live a healthy, good life and without water, people become thirsty. All her life, Handful is thirsty for this idea of freedom. I think that by using water, rather than a specific color to represent freedom for example, Kidd makes freedom a more tangible and universal idea. But water, just like freedom, is not all positive. Water has the power to suffocate and drown people just as the dream of freedom lured slaves into an empty promise.