she would search for that drifting deadwood and grab at it with both arms fearfully and mechanically , holding the floating trunk to her bosom with the misapplied dependence of ardent faith , aggressively defending it as though it were an extension of her , kicking at pursuing sharks who wished not so much to eat her , as to gnash their teeth against the wood and use it as a toothpick to purge themselves of the taste of that mornings repast ( of course , by doing so , the sharks would weaken the structural integrity of this makeshift vessel to which she clung , thus provoking her to kick them away out of sheer survivalism ) .