The Sea makes it clear that Max Morden is an unreliable narrator, and part of the novel’s interest is in exploring the issues associated with this: truth, subjectivity, perception, (mis)remembering, and the construction of identity. Max’s recollections are repeatedly proven to be mistaken and unreliable, and he constantly emphasizes the creative process involved in recollection. His first-person stream of consciousness charts sudden mood swings, contradictions, and drunken incoherence. Moreover, at times, it seems questionable whether he is even trying to be truthful. He attributes the names “Ballymore” and “Ballyless” to the town and the village in a flippant, playful manner in the opening pages, and toward the end of the book, it is revealed that “Max” is not his real name. The result is a deliberately internalized, subjective narrative, challenging the authority of narrative truth itself.

The seaside setting of the novel provides the text with its central metaphor. It is both a literal and a psychological landscape for Max, as it is the location of his memories and his present, having returned to the Cedars to both experience and remember it as a setting.