"Till Bolden went underwater away from the noise, opening his eyes to look up through the liquid blur at the vague figure of Webb gazing down at him gesturing, till he could hardly breathe, his heart furious wanting to leap out and Bolden still holding himself down not wishing to come up gripping the side of the tub with his elbows to stop him to stop him o god jesus leave me alone his eyes staring up aching, if Webb reaches down and tries to pull him up he will never come up he knows that, air! his heart empty overpowers his arms and he breaks up showering Webb, gulping everything he possibly can in." (80)The whole paragraph is written as one sentence, in a run-on stream of consciousness that seems to begin in the middle of a thought. The word 'till' starts off this section, a casual slang word that adds character and voice to the narrator.The first section shows that Bolden is surrounded by water, as if in an attempt to relax or escape from 'the noise' which he does not appear to want to confront. In the next section of the sentence Bolden's eyes are open, staring up through the water at his friend. This shows that Buddy does not want to truly acknowledge what Webb is saying or doing, but simply watch from a safe place or try to get away. Again we see the slang 'till' used, which gives the section the feeling of being inside someone's head who is just thinking in a constant flow. The section that follows, 'till he could hardly breathe', shows Bolden's determination to stay under the water, to continue to hide from the realizations and responsibilities that Webb symbolizes by finding Buddy.
From 'his heart furious...' down to the end of the passage is one long stream of though that is extremely effective in this part of the novel with this event. The reader feels placed inside the mind of Bolden, listening as his mind battles his body over which actions to take. Bolden here is nearly suffocating as his body wants to 'leap out' yet his elbows are there 'to stop him to stop him'. The repetition at that part is again very effective as if the reader is hearing Buddy remind his body to stay in place and stop itself from getting a breath. 'o god jesus' emphasizes the pain that Bolden feels despite forcing himself in this situation. It's curious how the words 'leave me alone' directly follow the call to god... My first thought was that Buddy was 'thinking at' Webb to leave him alone, yet when I read it the second time it almost seemed as if Buddy was calling out for god and Jesus to leave him alone to die.
In the next phrase Buddy's eyes are again described, yet now they are 'staring' and 'aching' as opposed to when they were just 'looking' when he first submerged himself. This calls the readers attention again to the increasing pain and suffering Buddy's body is undergoing in this short yet hectic passage.
The following part, about Webb, calls attention to how well he knows Buddy. Apparently well enough that he can sit by a bathtub where Buddy is trying to drown himself and just wait for his friend to resurface. Webb has come this far - traced Buddy all the way to the Brewitt's house - and here Webb's complete understanding of Buddy's character is emphasized by the fact that both men know that Webb won't try to get Buddy out of the tub by force because it will have a worse effect.
The exclamation, 'air!', seems to me to be Buddy's body's final cry of resistance to his attempts to drown himself... And in that burst of energy his heart 'overpowers' his mind's control of his body and breaks through the water, covering Webb with water in this sudden rush.
The last line '...gulping everything he possibly can in' is my favourite because it is so vague, and clearly symbolic. The author did not limit Buddy's gulping to,for example, 'all the air he could possibly breathe' because at that moment it is apparent that Bolden needs more than just air to keep him going, and he'll take anything he can get.
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