And thank goodness, since he sacrifices himself to the zombies a few days later.Īnd then there's Cass.

He says, 'Those days back there, in the house, that is my world. He gets it, too-when he and Mary get holed up in the house, Travis finds his ocean. His 'ocean,' his dream, became a life with Mary.

The ocean didn't mean surf and turf to him at that point. At first he was all about escaping and finding the dream world she talked about, but then his dreams started to change, thanks to a bum leg and his overwhelming love for Mary. Travis, on the other hand, started dreaming of the ocean when he met Mary and heard her stories. If you want to know just how obsessed she is with the idea, hop on over to the 'Characters' section and read all about the Marymeister. To Mary, that's real freedom, and that freedom is the only thing that can make her happy. So when Mary thinks of the ocean, she thinks of 'a world without the Unconsecrated, a world without the Forest of Hands and Teeth' (1.5). She even had a picture of her great-grandmother, free and happy as a child in the waves. Her dreams of the ocean began as a little girl when her mom told her stories about how the world used to be. For many of the characters, the idea of the ocean is their dream for something better, yet what that 'ocean' is depends on the character. The Forest of Hands and Teeth grabs a plate and loads up at that symbolic feast. From Kate Chopin's The Awakening to Finding Nemo, the ocean often shows up when freedom and coming home are on the literary table.

The forest of the hands and teeth