Clasky employs the imagery of an ambiguous horizon and the concept of geography to illustrate the arrogant and superior attitudes of a comm in the midst of a flood, a figurative representation of surplus. These people believe they are not to blame for the cause of a misfortunate drought elsewhere, and as a result are unwilling to share even a portion of their excess with those who are more needy.
             The horizon serves as both a physical, if not questionable, barrier between the water and the sky, and as a metaphor for the division between society's haves and have-nots. The story opens with a hyperbolic description of the consequences of being in the midst of a flood, wherein "a boat crashed into a plane" and people "drowned on the air." Such surreal images are the result of an overabundance of water combined with the oppressive heat and humidity of summer; the sky and the sea merge, as "problems with [the] horizon line" fail to delineate a distinction between them. In a more abstract sense, the horizon symbolizes the division between those with too much water and those lacking it. The author suggests that the horizon's ambiguity is "a reaction to modern times. . . and that it is having a harder and harder time keeping separate what should not be blended." This separation of "what should not be blended" is metaphorical for the southerners' comparison of themselves to the Yankees, two groups of people whom they feel should not be mixed. This arrogance becomes the source of their superior attitude toward the northern part of the country.
             Clasky's image of horizon leads into the motif of geography, describing images that elaborate on the arrogant attitudes of the 'haves'. The story is set in the South, "the bottom of the country," a region consisting of narrow-minded townspeople. This regional identity heightens the distinction between those in the...