Song for a Whale

Blue 55 is a fictional creation based on the 52 Blue whale that people dubbed “the Loneliest Whale in the World” (289). Like 52 Blue, Blue 55 is a hybrid whale, half blue and half fin whale, two species that are close enough to reproduce. Because he’s a hybrid and because of the unusual frequencies and cadences of his 55-Hz song, other whales—who sing at much lower frequencies—can’t understand and accept him. Blue 55’s inability to “communicate with his own parents” (13) makes his life experience much like Iris’s, as she instantly recognizes how she, who was named for a beached whale, connects to this other sentient creature who sings but struggles to be understood. Iris feels connected to Blue 55 through a compass that she finds at Mr. Gunnar’s antique store and through her dreams and her feeling that they’re swimming toward each other. She studies his physicality intensely, learning about his fin-whale fin and his blue-whale tail and noting details such as the smallness of his eye or the “crescent of the dorsal fin” rising above the surface “followed by the broad fluke” (263). Such observations make the whale feel more concrete and specific and illustrate his unique impact on Iris.

Kelly writes some chapters in third person from her animal protagonist’s perspective, gifting him with humanlike character development that makes him more relatable. The patterns in his song—and his approach to others—change over the course of the novel. He goes from being hopeful despite constant rejection, to being despondent, solitary, and silent, to embracing communion with Iris and the young blue whale Mara. He even reciprocates Iris’s affection, leaning to touch her. This appeal to the sense of touch appears customized for a girl who can’t hear his song but can feel it. Just like Iris, the whale learns to find his group and to better communicate with others.

Iris’s grandfather, who dies before the novel’s main action, is a key inspirational force in her life. Like Iris, he’s a person who is Deaf and enthusiastically participates in a vibrant Deaf culture. He met his wife in a Deaf theater group and retains a lifelong passion for performance, making handshape poems with Iris and signing for cruise-line karaoke. Grandma thinks that Iris has inherited his ability to bring other people into his projects and to communicate with everyone. In the first chapter, on the beach, Grandpa tells Iris that “sometimes it takes time to figure things out. But you’ll do it. You’ll find your way” (3).

In the manner of many coming-of-age novels, Grandpa, Iris’s mentor, must die to test her limits and force her to find her own way. Grandpa’s death initially makes things worse, as it causes a gulf between her and Grandma, who has gone into a solipsistic bereaved state. Iris still talks to him, although she knows that he’s gone and sometimes hopes that he can’t see the pitiful state of her life at school. Arguably, Iris’s contemplation of a relationship with someone she misses from beyond the grave is an initiatory step toward another relationship with a distant figure like Blue 55.

Iris’s grandmother, another person who is Deaf, is a bold, dynamic character who attempts to push a 40-ton beached whale back into the ocean, drives recklessly, and acts spontaneously. However, bereavement has clouded her personality. Iris notes how the “silvery waterfall” of Grandma’s long grey hair is full of tangles and how she struggles to maintain a conversation with this formerly vibrant woman (53). Iris worries that her former closeness with Grandma was a result of Grandpa’s intervention and that they’ll never be intimate in his absence. Still, an instinct that Grandma will understand her passion for the whale, having formerly attempted to rescue a whale herself, causes Iris to make her an accomplice in her Alaskan scheme. The cruise is so effective in rehabilitating Grandma to her former self that Iris considers the trip worthwhile for this reason alone.

During Grandma’s bereavement period and before her cruise with Iris, Iris’s parents put Grandma in the unnatural environment of Oak Manor’s retirement community in the hope that she’ll socialize with people. However, neither the retirement community nor the location suit Grandma, who realizes after the cruise that she needs to be beside the ocean. In deciding to live on a cruise ship for a year, Grandma defies ageist expectations that she should settle down into a life of dependency and stability. Iris realizes that Grandma, like the whale, needs to be set free to be “where she needed to be” rather than “a place on any map” (285). Although Iris will miss her Grandma, she has the maturity to accept people as they are rather than trying to change them. She recognizes the importance of setting them free so that they can best meet their own needs. Grandma repays the favor when she advocates for Iris to go to Bridgewood.

The hearing child of two parents who were Deaf, Iris’s mother grew up feeling left out and resentful of the connection her parents had with each other and their Deaf community. Although Mom is fluent in sign language, she’s envious and fearful of Iris’s relationship with her grandparents and manifests the fear that Iris won’t need her by holding onto Iris tightly and telling her she loves her before every visit to the grandparents. Another effect of her insecurities is that she prevents her daughter from attending Bridgewood school, which has a Deaf education program. She worries that the stronger ties that Iris will have with others in the Deaf community will disrupt the natural bond that she as a mother enjoys with her daughter.

As the novel progresses, however, Mom learns to hear what Iris is saying about what’s important to her—such as seeing the whale and going to a school where she can communicate with the other kids—rather than substituting her own values in place of Iris’s. In addition, Iris must risk displeasing Mom when she insists on attending Bridgewood Junior High School and puts her own needs above her mother’s feelings. While Mom’s experience of being the hearing child of parents who were Deaf was a form of isolation, the narrative’s message is that Mom should deal with her own issues rather than making Iris pay for them.

Iris’s father describes himself as “more of a ‘numbers person’ than a ‘words person’” (49) and never learned sign language well. Growing up with two hearing parents, his only engagements with the Deaf world are through his in-laws and daughter. He displays a typical hearing person’s rigidity when he can’t comprehend that ASL has its own logic and uses verbal figures of speech that make no sense when he tries to sign them. This causes a rift between him and Iris, who’s upset because she can’t understand him. She judges him for this deficiency when she says that “having a kid you could barely talk to would be harder” (49) than learning sign language. Dad’s lack of proficiency in sign language is typical of many parents of children who are Deaf, who never learn to fully communicate with them.

Although Dad dismisses Iris’s desire to go to Alaska and see the whale as an impossibility and doesn’t hear the importance of her mission, he attempts to bond with her by sharing his childhood passion for humpback whales and their music. He accommodates Iris’s disability by using speakers so that she can feel the vibrations of the humpback recording, he also expresses the wish that Iris could hear the songs and is sad that she’s missing out. While Iris is comfortable with her deafness, Dad’s pitying attitude creates a rift between them.

Even though Iris and Dad can’t communicate well, however, their love for one another is apparent. For example, Iris wants to remember to tell him about the humpback whales she saw on her Alaskan cruise, and Dad has trouble sleeping during her absence. By the end of the novel, Iris accepts that her relationship with her father is one of good intentions rather than perfect communication and understanding. It thus resembles her relationship with Blue 55.

Iris’s older brother, Tristan, drives a truck and is her chauffeur for getting between home and Mr. Gunnar’s store. Tristan has a good grasp of sign language and often understands what’s important to Iris better than her parents do. He helps her rescue some of her electronics after her parents ground her and follows her advice when it comes to repairing an errant motor. He often acts as an intermediary between Iris and her parents, communicating that they’ve grounded her from electronics because they think she should focus more on people than on objects.

However, Tristan, like Iris’s parents, doesn’t understand her passion for the whale and has no idea of her determination to see the animal when her parents forbid the trip to Alaska. He thinks that his sister sees the whale like one of her old radios and that she’s trying to fix it to feel better about herself. The fact that even Iris’s normally congenial brother can’t understand her visceral need to make the whale feel less alone emphasizes the rift in understanding between people who are Deaf and those who can hear. Tristan must witness Iris’s flight to see the importance of this mission to her.

Iris’s friend Wendell is the only other Deaf person that she can talk to besides her Grandma and is therefore an important figure in connecting Iris to Deaf culture. Although Wendell is from an entirely hearing family, they can all sign fluently, and his mother is even a teacher at Bridgewood school, which has a strong Deaf community. Kelly features Wendell as a rare example of an ideally positioned child who is Deaf: He can communicate both with his ASL-fluent family and with other children who are Deaf at school. Indeed, Iris’s incidental visit to Bridgewood, where she witnesses Wendell signing with a speed and range beyond her comprehension, shows her how much self-expression and belonging she’s missing. Wendell’s superior fluency in ASL heightens the pathos of Iris’s loneliness, as she’s cut off from both her hearing peers and those who are Deaf. Wendell’s privileged position means that he fails to notice how isolated Iris is when he makes the ill-judged joke of having to sign differently, “like an old person” (99), with her. Although Wendell is African American and Iris is white, race plays less of a role in Kelly’s depiction of privilege than the importance of access to a community of people with whom one can communicate fluently.

Kelly ensures that Wendell isn’t just a prototype of a well-adjusted Deaf child. She shows how he, like Iris, has a geeky scientific interest—though in his case, it’s in the stars rather than electronics. In addition, he’s the only one who listens to her passion for the whale and asks the questions her family won’t, about why it’s important to her. Listening to Iris is the key to Wendell’s understanding of Iris’s feelings toward the whale, showing that understanding isn’t automatic but a result of listening. In turn, Iris rewards him by telling him the secret of her expedition to Alaska. Iris looks set to become closer to Wendell and more like him when she goes to Bridgewood.

Bennie, Iris’s friend from the cruise, has light brown skin and dark hair. She shares Iris’s passion for the ocean, as she wants to be a shark biologist when she’s older. Bennie’s from Northern Canada, and her mother, Sura, is the ship’s naturalist. Bennie, who’s scrappy and curious, becomes Iris’s confidante and accomplice in tracking down Blue 55. The two girls learn from each other: Iris learns more about ocean wildlife and life in cold temperatures from Bennie, while Bennie learns about sign language and electronics from Iris.

Although Iris is Deaf and Bennie can hear, they communicate unselfconsciously, using every method at their disposal to get a point across. Unlike the kids at school who either pretend to be experts in sign language or ignore Iris because they feel awkward around her, Bennie’s approach is curious and non-judgmental. She responds to Iris’s note that she’s Deaf in a disarming, matter-of-fact way, stating, “I’m Bennie. Not Deaf” (164), and she subtly lets her mother know that Iris is Deaf before the presentation, giving Iris the best chance to lipread. Iris feels relieved that Bennie doesn’t seem afraid or put off by her disability and, as a result, takes a humorous approach to teaching Bennie sign language and laughing with her at her mistakes. The girls’ ability to laugh at misunderstanding indicates a level of intimacy and trust that furthers their communication. Bennie functions as a model for how hearing children should approach their peers who are Deaf.

A sanctuary staffer at the Appleton, Alaska sanctuary where Blue 55’s tagging is planned, Andi becomes Iris’s first port of call when it comes to tracking down the whale. She encourages Iris’s musical composition and says that they’ll play it at the time of the tagging. While Andi praises Iris’s ingenuity, she fails to comprehend the importance of a live meeting for either Iris or the whale. She gently discourages Iris from making the trip to Alaska and later disappoints her further when the whale changes its course, stating that the staff at the Oregon sanctuary don’t think it’s necessary to pursue the whale. Andi is thus another adult who fails to understand Iris’s passion.

The limitations of Andi’s mentorship are crucial in forging the growth of Iris’s determination and character. Iris must learn to put aside discouragement from someone she admires and instead trust in her vision to do what’s right. At the end of the novel, Andi rewards Iris’s efforts with the praise that she already has the skills to become an acoustic biologist.

A teacher at Timber Oaks school, Ms. Conn is a woman who looks at Iris as though “she’d just bitten into a sour pickle” (8). Ms. Conn clearly resents her only pupil who is Deaf as someone who makes her life more difficult, refusing to understand why Nina’s interventions are more of a hindrance than a help and ignoring Iris’s note about why a transliteration of her handshape poem rhymes in sign language. As a result, Iris not only feels unheard but attacked by the teacher who is supposed to be educating her. Iris expresses her wariness of Ms. Conn when she wishes to protect Grandpa from what her teacher said about his poem. Ms. Conn’s inadequacy as a teacher heightens the notion that Iris is at the wrong school and makes her mother’s insistence that she attend Timber Oaks a form of cruelty.

Iris’s science teacher, Sofia Alamilla, is the redeeming counterpart to Ms. Conn. Iris notes the “way her name rolled off my hand like a wave when I spelled it out” (11). She enjoys saying Ms. Alamilla’s name in the language that is most natural to her, which indicates Iris’s positive feelings toward this teacher and sense of ease with her. In addition, Ms. Alamilla plays a crucial role in the narrative when she mentions Blue 55 to Iris’s class and starts the fascination that propels the plot. She seems to genuinely care for Iris when she hugs and praises her after her return from the cruise.

Mr. Charles, Iris’s ASL interpreter at Timber Oaks, acts as an intermediary between Iris and her hearing teacher. This is a role that Kelly understands, as it is her own. The story reveals little about Mr. Charles’ character and personality; however, he and Iris have a relationship of mutual respect and admiration: He often signs that he’s trying not to laugh at her signed witticisms, while she feels comfortable enough with him to push the boundaries and try to make him laugh. When Iris goes to Bridgewood, her affection for Mr. Charles remains, as she misses him.

Nina is the classmate at Timber Oaks that Iris finds the most infuriating. Her character represents the misunderstandings between Iris and the hearing world. While Nina, who has checked out a book on sign language from the library and makes intense handshapes before Iris’s face, has all the semblance of congeniality to the hearing world, Iris knows that Nina’s signs are ill-informed, senseless concoctions. It isn’t only Nina’s insensitivity that gets to Iris but also the fact that to the hearing majority, Nina seems like the well-intended, clever one, while Iris seems unintelligent for not understanding her. While Iris feels that Nina’s actions are destructive, Bennie offers a kinder interpretation and encourages Iris to appreciate Nina’s efforts, however imperfect, and compare them to her own improvised attempts to reach the whale. However, when Iris changes school, the narrative shows that a child who is Deaf isn’t responsible for accommodating a hearing child who repeatedly ignores the former’s requests for personal space.