Exploration of mortality, sexuality and humanity at Ferris BeachThroughout life's journey, every person experiences events, emotions and consequences that cannot be explained. Situations don't always turn out for the best, and it's human nature to try to understand or respond to why things are the way they are. In Ferris Beach, a fictional novel or girl's coming of age story, Kate Burns struggles with questions of life and death as she searches for some sort of explanation for her problems. His struggle to understand the events of his life manifests itself in his exploration of mortality, sexuality, and humanity. Death is always a difficult concept to deal with at some point in life. Kate wonders what is going on in the world and why her loved ones are being swept away forever in the deaths of Mo Rhodes and her father Fred. On Independence Day, the fateful start of the disaster, Kate experiences her first adult problems. Similar to Jem and Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, Kate evolves through her innocence into experience with obvious and discreet contact with the adult world. As she sits with Misty watching the fireworks, she senses trouble in her best friend. I turned to Misty, ready to ask her why her parents had left, but she sat there hugging her knees, head down as she watched the fireworks. heaven... there was something in her silence that made me ask my question, and instead I moved closer to her, hugged my knees, and looked up just as she did. was doing (McCorkle 81-82). Kate is aware that something went wrong. but she doesn't know exactly what the situation is. Despite the distractions of fireworks, her father's comments, boys fighting on the beach, and Mrs. Poole's endless chatter, Kate focuses on the more important (albeit silent) thing happening with Misty. Misty's slight hint of dismay precedes Kate's reaction to Mo's death. Kate, throughout the novel, "watches" different people, and from her house she can see into the Rhodes and Huck homes. She "watches" Misty's house after Mo's car accident and comments that Misty "...looked so pale" and the whole family "...froze like at the end of a play" (McCorkle 91).