This quotation found frequently in Joyce Carol Oates' Black Water is uttered by Kelly as she faces her last living hours. Under the dark water she desperately attempts to make some meaning out of her life. How did she get to this moment? Disillusioned in her hopes and ideals, and awakened to the world of hurt, betrayal, and humiliation, Kelly reveals herself to us as a young woman whose life has been controlled by others. The meaning behind her utterance illustrates Kelly's voicelessness in her own life, lack of power over her own life, and how a combination of both of these characteristics shape her dependency on others in order for her to substantiate her own self worth.

Evidence of Kelly’s lack of voice appears in the speeding car with the Senator. She compares this event in her mind to when her own father drove erratically after a quarrel with her mother. "Don't ask. Sit up straight. It’s fine. You know you’re someone’s little girl don’t you?" (16) These words reflect Kelly’s fear of voicing her own ideas and thoughts. Not asking, poses another example of Kelly acquiescence. As with her parents, Kelly takes comfort in the fact that she is someone’s little girl. Not someone’s adult child, for that would represent a more powerful nature. But a little girl, who universally possesses the characteristics of voicelessness and little opposition. Someone chose her, though she never voiced a yea or a nay and remains enamored with this position and remains quiet while the events unfold around her.

Kelly’s inability to exert power over her own life ultimately causes her demise. In the story we do not see Kelly taking action that causes an effect on her life, but rather we see her acted upon by these around her. "She was the girl, she was the one he’d chosen, she was the one to whom it would happen" (44). Consistent with the idea of Kelly’s lack of power, as the car turns over under the water, the Senator and G___ merge together in her thoughts. The connection between them is physical pain that they both inflicted on her, but Kelly remains certain it was unconscious on their part. She is very willing to suffer a little pain if it allows her to be "someone’s little girl." Vivid recollections of being in bed with G____ come to mind and Kelly reassures herself, "You know you’re someone’s little girl?" (45) Kelly looks to these men for their power that it might suffice for the lack of power in her own life.

Seducing Kelly as his next conquest proves to be a simple task for the Senator considering Kelly’s lack of an assertive voice and her powerless acquiescence. The Senator approached her quietly, "a touch that ran through her like an electric shock as she realized it was his tongue on her skin..." (58). Kelly’s reaction to the situation again reveals her search to belong to someone as she tells herself again, "You know you’re someone’s little girl don’t you? Oh yes!" (58) The growing intimacy Kelly compares to a fairy tale, and assumes she is safe. The myth of the "American Girl" is alive and well in Kelly Kelleher. This myth she grew up believing taught her that a woman must belong to a man in order to be safe.

In spite of her education and experiences, Kelly cannot emancipate herself to the point of independence. Dependency is rooted deep in her nature, and these roots continue to spread as Kelly clings to these ludicrous values, and finds gratification in the false realization that she belongs to someone. Representative of this dependency is the situation in the car when the Senator drives at high speeds and Kelly believes they are lost but fails to assert herself a put a stop to the situation. "She was the one, the one he’d chosen. The one in the speeding car. The passenger" (54 ). Again Kelly maintains her submissive position believing she must show trust in this older man of position and power. Reflecting on the story and Kelly’s characteristics leads to the conclusion that her life was a mindless tragedy. A culmination of Kelly’s character traits and the events of the story illustrate Kelly as a victim in a mindless tragedy, and throughout her entire life she was "set-up" as an excellent candidate. The fact remains that Kelly’s voice was consistently drowned out by the more powerful voice of the Senator. She learned early in life that acquiescence led to acceptance, and thus to belonging, as in "You know you’re someone’s little girl..." (16). These erroneous values gave Kelly comfort, and the irony that reveals itself is that in spite of the comfort Kelly thought she found with them, she also encountered her demise as a result of them.