Our bodies were tired from the excitement, multiple sugar overdoses, and physical exertions after the Labor Day weekend. An unexpected change was on the horizon. Swimming, fort building, fishing, joyous family campfires, and stinky mayhem defined our life at the cottage. I loved it there. One last sleep. Staring at the ceiling I remember thinking that second grade was a day away. Argh! How could my life have ended? What do I do now? “Shhhh!!!!” …laughter…hushed voices…there was someone on the porch. Quickly climbing out of bed I peered through my mother's handmade strawberry patterned curtains. Blinded by the last glowing full moon of the summer, its rays kissed the ripples of the water sporting luminescent diamonds as a backdrop. I saw my father's arms around my mother's waist. “Mom, you are still the most beautiful girl after twenty-one years. I love you." They cooed like two doves, their faces touching. It would be the last time I would see them embrace. He died on the first day of school. “The summer rain is still the most comforting sound I know. I like to pretend that be our dead mother's fingers, drumming on the ceiling above us (3)” Describing the irreparable loss of her mother and hidden feelings of grief, twelve-year-old Ava Bigtree is the protagonist of Karen Russell's dramatic prose “Ava Wrestles the. Aligator.” Ava draws readers into the dangers of fighting alligators unanimously called “Seth” and estuaries of exotic birds in the fun and eccentric world of Swampladia (1). type of story. Swamplandia! means the mortal remnant of the memory and union with the deceased mother. sell deliberately chooses Ava's multidimensional name to symbolize her role as the "bird" in the estuary and the strongest fulcrum between the living and the dying, namely the death of her family. When she learns of her sister's plot to commit suicide, Ava rushes to save her sister "When I break free from the trees and head towards the pond, my whole body ready to fight, there is no visible opponent to contend with ". As Ava charges (24) through the water she faces death head on and "wrestles the alligator" Ossie. As Russell's dramatic prose comes to a close, Ava describes that the undoubted pain associated with the death and bereavement of a parent ultimately resolves; consequently the intimate knowledge of pain remains forever ingrained in one's life "As if something was still clawing at her from the inside, pushing outward, a pressure trying to tear the skin.(25)”