This is a common trope in literature, from The Old Man and the Sea to Moby Dick. Sea journeys are grueling, and authors can use characters’ tribulations to bring out latent traits and catalyze growth. In Migrations, the voyage of the Saghani—and later the Sterna Paradisaea—symbolizes and facilitates Franny’s self-actualization.

Franny is a deeply traumatized person. She grows up in a fractured family and loses several loved ones prematurely, including her mother, husband, and infant daughter. She blames herself for these losses and deals with her trauma by suppressing negative memories. She carries shame about the “wilderness” within her which causes her to shun close relationships. Additionally, Franny feels that she doesn’t belong anywhere except among the wildest parts of nature. She characterizes herself as someone who “is able to love but unable to stay” (199), believing that her nature is incompatible with lasting love.

Aboard the Saghani, Franny loses herself in the backbreaking work of maintaining the ship. She fears no physical danger but still can’t confront her memories. She writes countless unsent letters to Niall and hides the past from her crewmates. Her repressed trauma manifests in violent nightmares and sleepwalking bouts, as well as flashes of memory which slowly piece together the truth about her past.