The theme of walking on water is the fragility of human life. It is expressed in two distinctly different ways: the viewpoint of the narrator and the viewpoint of his mother. Although both he and his mother attempt to create a shield for human frailty, their methods conflict and contradict one another.
             The story starts in the middle of the families ritual lake hike. This reoccurring theme of a person striving to survive the harsh elements of the Canadian climate is an introduction to the mothers attempt at protecting her son.
             There is a brief moment where the begging in his mother's eyes is visible. This foreshadows her plan that, like the frozen fish, beneath the ice she is trying to halt her son from his personal quest for security. It is quickly pointed out that this instant glaciation is no laughing matter, it happened to people too. Reading further into this metaphor, like the fish, the James' mother would inevitably bring his demise by preventing him from taking his journey.
             The main rising action, which sent James on his quest for independence, was the death his class mate Stuart Anderson. After the death James suddenly became more aware of his own mortality. If one decision he made could have saved the life of Stuart Anderson, life must be a truly fragile thing. This scared James, not so much because he feared his own death, but because he feared being left alone. It was then that he made the decision to travel to California and gain his independence.
             James felt that he could protect himself from the frailty of life by not being dependant on any other lives. Conversely, James' mother saw frailty in her son and wanted to protect him from the dangers she perceived to be in travel. Both recognized the same human frailty and yet tried to deal with it in opposite ways. Neither would have been successful in protecting anyone. Life is a fragile thing but it should be lived oblivious to that fact if...