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Whether you view the children as characters or aspects of the self, the main theme is the search for identity. Each girl finds something at the sea that is quite unlike what the others find. Maggie is the ‘thinker’, she ponders the troubles of the world. Milly is the ‘sensitive’ one, she focuses on the needs of others. Molly is the innocent one, she is naïve towards the ways of the world. May is the dreamer, she views and imagines things beyond the normal spectrum of thinking. The last lines of the poem tie together the theme through needing to find
