The story engages the ways we are conditioned and limited by the larger political framework in which we live. It raises questions about how much we actually manage the forces in our lives and how much we do not. A ship for some may represent the ability to sail away … to find independence or to escape. This story may be seen as investigating whether that is possible or desirable. Ethics, rationality, instinct, serendipity all enter the picture but seem not to frame it.