Arthur Gordon The Sea Devil Essay

In the short story God is not a Fish Inspector by W.D. Valgardson, the protagonist Fusi Bergman is a man with a youthful heart who struggles to accept his failure to fish efficiently due to his aging body. As a result of the conflicts that dominate his life, Fusi gives in to his inevitable fate, and loses the one thing that sets him apart from his former friends and acquaintances. Fusi’s hostile relationship with his daughter, his opposition against the old folk’s home, and the deterioration of his body contribute to his ultimate defeat. To begin with, Fusi and his daughter Emma’s clashing views lead to Fusi’s loss of individuality. Emma feels fishing without a license is unethical, and suggests that “God will punish” Fusi.

The film The Sea Inside shares the heart warming real life story of a man named Ramon Sampedro. At the young age of twenty-six he suffered an accident while diving into shallow waters of the ocean that left him a quadriplegic. Now at the age of fifty-four, Ramon must depend on his family to survive. His older brother Jose, Jose’s wife, Manuela and their son Javi do their best to take care of Ramon and make him feel loved. Although Ramon is extremely grateful to his family and friends for their help all these years, he has come to see his life as aggravating and unsatisfying. He wishes to die with the little dignity he has left in his life. However, Ramon’s family is dead set against the thought of assisted suicide and the

Behavioral Biologist at Edinburgh University, Victoria Braithwaite in her article, Hooked on a Myth, Published in Los Angeles Times 2006, addresses the topic of “fish have feelings”, and argues that we should adopt new ways of fishing. She supports this claim by the behavioral studies and experiments, as well as the examples and similarities the fish have with humans. She adopts a determined and passionate tone for her audience, the readers of Los Angeles Times and others interested in the topic animal justice.

Man is a product of two worlds— the one he inhabits and the one he strives to create. The fisherman in Lawrence Sargent Hall’s “The Ledge” is caught somewhere between the two. A calloused, hardworking man who lives in a cold corner of the world, he is a father, a husband, and a man. Hall uses the perception of others, the actions of the protagonist, and direct narration to ultimately expose the real, imperfect humanity of the fisherman.

Sometimes our everyday experiences can strike us in ways that will influence our thinking in ways that might forever alter the way that we view our lives. In the short story “Fish Story,” Rick Bass primarily uses conflict, symbols, and the changes in a character to present a central theme reflecting the inevitability of our maturing thoughts and growing responsibilities that come incrementally with age. Gullason (1982) shares, “A short story represents a prose narrative usually concerned with a single aspect of personality changing or revealed as the result of conflict” (p. 222). We might interestingly find both of these dynamics within our weekly discussion’s short story assignment. Pigg (2017) explains, “The theme of a work of fiction is as much a creation of readers as it is for the writer because the user’s knowledge and beliefs play a part in determining the theme(s) they will recognize” (Attend Topic 4 Unit 2 [Video]). The writer of this week’s short story was likely to have known the theme that he intended to communicate while also recognizing the diversity of human thinking that gives us a myriad of perspectives. The “’Fish Story’s’ narrator is a 10-year-old boy in the early 1960’s living in rural Texas with parents who run a service station while their customer brings a 86 pound catfish creating a task to keep the fish alive until time to cook it” (Bass, 2009, pp. 1-2). As we recall our childhoods, most can likely remember how our imagination and fantasies began to collide with the realities of life, and this overreaching concept might allude to the theme of this piece of work. The narrator tells us how “He grew dizzy in the heat and from the strange combination of the unblinking monotony and utter fascination of his task until the trickling from the water hose seemed to be saturating and inflating the clouds as one would water a garden” (Bass, 2009, p. 2). As the narrator embraces the mundane task, his daydreams seem to symbolize the innocence of his youth. Later the story’s narrator “speaks less of childhood than of the general nature of the world in which we live, while contemplating that those days were different – we had more time for such thoughts, that time had not yet been corrupted”

“He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and into dullness that he mistrusted.”(74) Once both the fish and Santiago had reached the breaking point of conflict the story seemed to slow down in time to exemplify the adverse conditions that both characters were suffering from. The old man proves himself worthy of personal suffering with the cuts and scars on his hands and back along with all of the pulling and slipping the cords had upon his fragile body. Hemmingway shows in a big way how an out of proportioned conflict with an old fisherman and an 18 foot long marlin helps to magnify the significance of Santiago searching for his rebirth to manhood. With constant abstraction describing the fish and the sea in relation to brotherhood create interesting questions for Santiago to ponder. His rationalization for his fishing is that he was born to do it. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Hemmingway proves that this fish represents all of Santiago’s built up tension to total the size of a gigantic marlin that is perceived as devastating but not unconquerable. The old man’s hopes and aspirations can overcome the adversity of the marlin’s size, along with the conditions of the old, hungry, and exhausted fisherman. Through outright suffering Santiago achieves a goal above his previous manhood by combating pain and

Even after he kills a fish in a seemingly careless fashion, in his sleep “[his] mind lit up by the…flickering of the dying [fish]” seems to haunt him with resentment (Martel 186). This subconscious image is a product of Pi’s internal conflict with his new methods of survival. Therefore, Pi is unable to completely eliminate his feelings while trying to survive due to his torn thoughts between morality and necessity.

Antwone "Fish" Fisher is a complex individual who has been through a great deal of psychological and sociological conflicts in his short life. His mother was arrested and then abandons him, he was abused physically and emotional, and then lived on the streets. In short, nearly everything bad that can possible happen to a person has happened to young Antwone Fisher before he has reached adulthood. In his autobiographical book Finding Fish (2001), Fisher explains how the torment that he experienced in his youth shaped the man that he would become in adulthood. Although this story tells about one young man's difficulties in life and how he had to overcome obstacles in order to be a functional and positive member of society, it is really a story about the larger human condition and how every person becomes affected by their experiences.

Eighner begins his essay by drawing attention to various words through italicization. This initial start to the essay helps Eighner defamiliarize the idea of dumpster divers since they are usually seen as uneducated or lower beings. Eighner demonstrates methods and knowledge when eating from dumpsters through his calculations in reference to finding the best food. For instance, he often frequents pizza parlours and college student residences. Although he writes to inform the reader, he ultimately pushes self-reliance, where those who choose to Dumpster dive should think for themselves when determining what to take from Dumpsters. Next on Eighner’s “list” is the psychological process of becoming a “diver”. Everyone is very different on their route in becoming and continuing as a Dumpster diver. Some trade their thoughts with others. Eighner identifies these people in some categories: Can scroungers, pack rats, and the literate and educated. Through these types Eighner provides a space to explain and interpret the different types, highlighting how he feels about each type and where he fits in. In his conclusion Eighner unpacks his experiences with his trusty canine and he acknowledges what he has covered and gives more hints that dumpster diving was not his first choice when it comes to living, but he doesn’t think badly of

My brother hopped out and got a few rods and a tackle box out. “Come on, Jay is already at the end,” he said as he rushed to the entrance and paid 18$ for both of us to fish until 7 the next morning. I stepped onto the pier and was shocked to see so many people of all ages, sizes, races. The pier was old and worn out, creaking with each careful step I took. The shine of the moonlight reflecting off the pier and the water gave the pier a somewhat scary but welcoming feeling. We walked down to the very end and met up with Jay. He had a giant cooler filled with squid and other types of fish to use as bait, and a gigantic battle rod. “What’s up man?” Mitchell exclaimed and hugged Jay. “Ready to try to teach this little one how to fish?” my brother laughed as they both looked at me awkwardly standing there not knowing what to do. It was around six at night and the pier was still pretty packed, but people were starting to pack up and

‘Children of the Sea’ is a harrowing story written by Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-American woman who expresses her personal trauma and horrors through her literature. ‘Children of the Sea’ opens with an undisclosed man writing a letter to his beloved as he travels across the sea from his home, where is lover is also writing letters directed to him. The letters they write to one another dictates the plot and reveals the two unnamed narrators lives.

succeed. He uses his hands and he uses his instincts to master the art of

In the novella, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is an unlucky fisherman who has not caught anything in 84 days.  Yet he sets out alone on the 85th day to try again.  For three days he struggles with a large marlin which he finally kills; but, despite his best efforts, he loses the fish to repeated shark attacks.

Jack London’s novel, The Sea-Wolf, has many different interpretations. The story can be read as a combination of the naturalistic novel and the sentimental romance, both very popular around the turn of the century. London also brings into play literary naturalism, in which human beings are characterized as just another species in nature, subject to all of Her cosmic forces. The Sea-Wolf fits almost perfectly the archetypal pattern of an initiation story. Depth and interest are added to The Sea-Wolf by successfully integrating these three elements -- the combination of two popular genres, literary naturalism, and the initiation story.

In the book Star of the Sea, written by author Joseph O’Connor, he states “They had far more in common than either realised. One was born Catholic, the other Protestant. One was born Irish, the other British. But neither was the greatest difference between them. One was born rich and the other poor.” O’Connor summarises the idea of social class that has been a recurring idea since the dawn of time. Social classes is basically the division of society that is based on social and economic status. The people who were at the top of the social classes were thought to be the prestigious and most worthy people and the further you go down the chain the more common people you began to see. Many people demonstrate the social class system in literature. Shakespeare, especially, offers a challenge to what everyone thought they knew of the social class system.