50 Important Quotes You Should Pay

Attention to in Past the Shallows

Loyalty and Brotherhood

#1: “Don’t you get stuck here with your dad,” he said. “Don’t you let him…
You’re too young to be out there working, Miles. It’s not right.”

● Character: Brian Roberts, to Miles

● Technique: Dialogue, truncated sentence, imperatives
● Chapter 11

#2: “Harry leaned his head back against the chair and thought that if Miles got
lost, if Miles never came home, Harry’s insides would go wrong and they
might never come right again. If Miles got lost.”

● Characters: Harry and Miles

● Technique: Truncated sentence, metaphor, dichotomy
● Chapter 31

#3: “…he looked so young and small, like no time had ever passed by since
he was the baby in the room and Joe had told Miles to be nice to him and help
Mum out.”

● Characters: Harry and Miles

● Technique: Descriptive language
● Chapter 35

#4: “But Harry had a way about him. A way that made you promise to take
care of him.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Repetition
● Chapter 35

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 1

 #5: “...just one blue flame too small to feel. But he willed it on, felt the first
flicker of warmth as it grew. Then it raged, turned into a ball of fire, orange
and red and hungry. It devoured his stomach, moved up to his lungs, his
back. Moved into his heart. He shared it with Harry through his skin.”

● Characters: Harry and Miles

● Technique: Symbolism, motif, colour symbolism, visceral language
● Chapter 37

#6: “He leaned his head down against his brother’s shoulder. And he let
himself cry.”

● Characters: Joe and Miles

● Technique: Truncated sentence, emotive language, vulnerability
● Chapter 41

#7: “He wondered what Miles would choose to eat first. Whatever it was, he’d
choose the same.”

● Characters: Harry and Miles

● Technique: Repetition
● Chapter 4

Familial Tragedy

#8: “What am I meant to do? What am I meant to do?” And he heard her voice
rise up, familiar tears. “I grew up in that House, Miles. Don’t I deserve
something?”

● Character: Aunty Jean, to Miles

● Technique: Repetition, rule of threes, rhetorical question
● Chapter 13

#9: “​​Then they heard Dad yelling from inside. Yelling at them, at everyone.
Yelling at no one. And Miles could hear the words. They came through the
brown walls, through the air, and cracked open the night: “I never wanted
you.””

● Characters: Dad and the brothers

● Technique: Anaphora, metaphor
● Chapter 24

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 2

 #10: “He just kept staring at Harry. And his hand moved away from Harry’s
hair, moved down to the string around his neck and he cupped it in his palm -
a white pointer’s tooth.”

● Characters: Dad, Uncle Nick and Mum

● Technique: Symbolism, the juxtaposition between the seemingly tender
gesture and the fear Harry feels
● Chapter 36

#11: “He had been drifting for a lifetime and his mind had lost its way. It was
dissolving and he had forgotten about Harry, forgotten about all the things
that came before.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Motif of water, symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 39

#12: “This is for you,” he said, and he put the tooth in his hands. “For luck.”
Miles looked up at George, his eyes full of tears. “You found him,” he said.
“Harry.”

● Characters: Miles and George

● Technique: Symbolism, situational irony
● Chapter 42

#13: “You remember, don’t you?“...Dad pulled Miles in close, so close that his
face was all Miles could see. And it made him sick the way Dad’s face was.
The way he looked like he was crying. Like someone had done something
terrible to him.”

● Characters: Dad and Miles

● Technique: Irony, rhetorical question
● Chapter 29

#14: “He let the tooth go. He stared down at Harry. “She was leaving, because
of him. Because of you”

● Characters: Dad and Harry

● Technique: implication that Harry is Uncle Nick’s biological son, truncated
sentence, anaphora
● Chapter 29

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 3

 #15: “Because the bank owned the boat now. Because the bank owned
everything.”

● Characters: Dad and the three brothers

● Technique: Alliteration
● Chapter 2

Trauma, Memory and Grief

#16: “Harry picked up an abalone shell, the edges loose and dusty in his
hands. And every cell in his body stopped. Felt it. This place. Felt the people
who had been here before, breathing and standing live where he stood.
People who were dead now. Long gone.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Truncated sentence, tactile imagery
● Chapter 1

#17: “He used to feel sorry for the abs when he was young. The way they
pulsed and moved in the tubs, sensing the bright light and heat. But he
couldn’t think about them like that now. He was only careful not to cut or
bruise them, because once abs started to bleed, they kept on bleeding until
all the liquid inside was gone. They just dried up and died.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Descriptive language, symbolism, foreshadowing
● Chapter 5

#18: “But Harry stayed where he was. He stayed among the piles of
Granddad’s things left on the lawn—all the things that were no longer needed,
no longer useful—and he wished that Joe would stay.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Emotive language, visual imagery
● Chapter 14

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 4

 #19: “Maybe that’s why Joe and Miles liked it so much. And he knew that
Granddad would have taken him. It was just that he was too little, too small to
go, when Granddad had been alive. And if Granddad hadn’t died then he
definitely would have taken Harry fishing, too. And it would have been good,
like this was.”

● Characters: Harry, Miles, Joe and Grandad”

● Technique: Anaphora, symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 17

#20: “A shark’s tooth, cold and sharp - a perfect blade everything that a shark
was rotted and disappeared, everything but its jaw and its teeth. That was all
a shark could ever leave behind”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Symbolism, foreshadowing, allegory for Dad’s behaviour

#21: “And the man turned in his seat. He reached over and stroked Harry’s
cheek. He looked at Miles. It was Uncle Nick”

● Characters: Miles, Uncle Nick, mother

● Technique: Dramatic irony
● Chapter 15

#22: “It was fully formed, more than half a yard long, maybe only days away
from being born. It would have survived if Jeff had just let it go, let it slide off
the back of the boat”

● Characters: Jeff and Miles

● Technique: Arbitrary cruelty, descriptive language
● Chapter 9

#23: “And they never found him./Not one bit./ Not his boots./ Not his bones.”

● Characters: Miles, regarding Uncle Nick

● Technique: Truncated sentences, paragraphs, tricolon
● Chapter 2

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 5

 #24: “Harry tried to listen to the talking so that he didn’t have to think about
the road. It was a long drive and the worst bit was still to come… that was
where his ears usually popped and where he usually got carsick”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Sensory language
● Chapter 3

#25: “Harry noticed that Miles was holding his hands strangely. They were red
and swollen. They looked bad.”

● Characters: Harry and Miles

● Technique: Anaphora
● Chapter 4

Responsibility

#26: “First day of school holidays. First day he must man the boat alone while
the men go down. Old enough now, he must take his place. Just like his
brother before him, he must fill the gap Uncle Nick left.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Anaphora
● Chapter 2

#27: “He listened to Joe talk about all the places they would go, the tropical
islands and clear warm water, the big bright lights of new cities. The free
open space of ocean.”

● Characters: Joe and Miles

● Technique: hope, visual imagery
● Chapter 41

#28: “And he knew that Joe was going to take him with him, now.”

● Characters: Joe and Miles

● Technique: Definitive language
● Chapter 41

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 6

Nature’s Wrath and Nature’s Nurture

#29: “Water that was always there. Always everywhere. The sound and the
smell of the cold waves… he knew the way he felt about the ocean would
never leave him now. It would be there always, right inside of him.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Repetition, sensory language, symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 1

#30: “There were things that no one would teach you—things about the water.
You just knew them or you didn’t and no one could tell you how to read it.
How to feel it. Miles knew the water. He could feel it. And he knew not to trust
it.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Truncated sentence, symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 2

#31: “But ultimately it wasn’t up to you. This ocean could hold you down for
as long as it liked, and Miles knew it.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Allegory for dad’s behaviour
● Chapter 37

#32: “There was only this vastness, the swing of a giant pendulum—water
receding then flooding back. And he was part of it. Part of the deep water, part
of the waves. Part of the rocks and reefs along the shore.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Anaphora, symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 39

#33: “Miles let the rip that ran with the bluff carry him. He enjoyed the ride,
felt his hands slipping through the cool water, body floating free. And there
was this feeling in him like when it had all just been for fun, the water.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 42

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 7

 #34: “It made the dark water sparkle, turned the white spray golden—made
the ocean a giant mirror reflecting the sky. Even the leaves on the crack
wattle shone in the light. It made everything come to life”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Imagery
● Chapter 43

#35: “It had made it this far, battling its siblings, killing and feeding off them.
Waiting. It would have been born strong, ready to hunt, ready to fight.”

● Characters: Jeff and Miles

● Technique: Allegory
● Chapter 9

#36: “Everything was clean and golden and crisp, the sky almost violet with
the winter light and he wished that he wasn’t afraid”

● Characters: Harry, watching Miles and Joe in the water

● Technique: Fricatives, imagery
● Chapter 1

#37: “They were always in groups, cormorants. Huddled together in groups

on the cliffs and rocks, long necks reaching up to the sun. Sometimes they
stayed like that all day. Together. Waiting and watching. Resting.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: truncated sentences, symbolism for the brothers
● Chapter 1

#38: “Miles knew exactly how dark it was that night, the sky blacked out by
cloud so thick that nothing came through - no stars or moon or anything.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Symbolism, foreshadowing
● Chapter 2

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 8

 #39: “Miles watched the surface change colour - come to life. And even
though they were still out deep, away from land, there was places where the
water rose like it was climbing a hill, places where the water was angry”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Imagery, the symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 2

#40: “Miles knew the water. He could feel it. And he knew not to trust it”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Tricolon, truncated sentences
● Chapter 2

#41: “The cliffs behind were like giant guardians standing tall.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Symbolism
● Chapter 4

#42: “Below in the murky darkness, in the swirling kelp, all you had to guide
you was one hand touching the rock wall while your legs kicked you down
blind. And that's where they were, the abalone.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Imagery
● Chapter 4

#43: “The paddle was easy. The waves were easy. The ocean was at peace.”

● Characters: Miles
● Technique: Tricolon
● Chapter 6

Time

#44: “Harry understood it, right down in his guts, that time ran on forever and
that one day he would die”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Foreshadowing
● Chapter 1

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 9

 #45: “And if you didn’t know better, you’d think that no one lived here
anymore. That all these places were abandoned. But people were in there
somewhere, hidden and burrowed in. They were there.”

● Characters: Joe and Miles

● Technique: allegory, foreshadowing
● Chapter 7

#46: “He lived for this, for these moments when everything stops except your
heart beating and time bends and ripples—moves past your eyes frame by
frame and you feel beyond time and before time and no one can touch you.”

● Characters: Joe and Miles

● Technique: Water motif, run-on sentence
● Chapter 22

#47: “Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark
water - black and cold and roaring. Rolling out the invisible paths. The ancient
paths to Bruny, or down south along the silent cliffs, the paths out deep to the
bird islands that stand tall between nothing but water and sky. Wherever rock
comes out of deep water, wherever reef rises up, there is abalone.
Black-lipped soft bodies protected by shell. Treasure.”

● Characters: third person narration

● Technique: anaphora, foreshadowing, imagery, descriptive language
● Preface

#48: Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark
water - black and cold and roaring. Rolling out an invisible path, a new line for
them to follow. To somewhere warm. To somewhere new.”

● Characters: Third person narration

● Technique: Cyclical structure, alludes back to the preface
● Chapter 42

#49: “And harry understood, right down in his guts, that time ran on forever
and that one day he would die.”

● Characters: Harry
● Technique: Foreshadowing
● Chapter 1

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 10

 #50: “Joe made a sound but he wasn’t really listening. He was somewhere
else, maybe still out there in the water with Miles”

● Characters: Joe
● Technique: Symbolism of the sea
● Chapter 1

© Art of Smart Education, 2022 https://www.artofsmart.com.au/ 11

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