Aquaphobia is a fear of water, or more specifically a fear of being immersed in water. The symptoms include dizziness, nausea, trembling, sweating and an increased heart rate - what Brody remembers his mother calling "the wimwams." The reference to a childhood memory is a relevant one. Anyone who has learnt to swim as a child can relate to the fear of being in an element which has the ability to swallow and suffocate them. Those who carry a fear of water into their adult life most likely do so as the result of a childhood incident. Extreme aquaphobes may be freaked out by a bathtub or even a glass pitcher. Of the many recorded phobias, a fear of drowning is one that most of us can relate to - certainly more so than a random selection of other fears such as caligynephobia, ereuthrophobia or omphalophobia.
In Jaws it is not simply the water itself, but the creatures which inhabit it that we fear. In describing Brody's own fear of the water, Peter Benchley seems to morph into Stephen King: "In Brody's dreams, deep water was populated by slimy, savage things that rose from below and shredded his flesh, by demons that cackled and moaned." The shark is demonised by Quint, who hurls religious insults at it more frequently than he hurls harpoons("God damn your fucking soul! .... Come up, you devil! .... Come out, you godforsaken sonofabitch! ..... God damn your black soul!").
One of the book's minor characters, Minnie Eldridge, possibly Amity's oldest living resident, invokes the Book of Job and is of the opinion that the shark is on some kind of perverse mission from God. Her firebrand warning seems to echo that of Elijah, whom Ishmael and Queequeg meet when they join the crew of the Pequod. Like shark victim Morris Cater, Minnie does not make it to the movie, but she does get to witness a suitably fiery death in the sequel.
