The Fish

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”

Among George Byron’s most distinguished compositions is “Apostrophe to the Ocean.” Written during the Romanticism era, the poem depicts some defining aspects of the period through the ocean’s untameable beauty -- and mankind’s harmful attempts to control it. Though Byron admits that he cannot capture the ocean’s true essence in mere words, he puts forth the effort to illustrate its formidable power and beauty through various literary elements.

The poetry is a unique way to express the feelings, tell the story or just entertain others. It has been around for a long time. It was developing and expanding throughout the civilized man-kind life. There are many topics discussed using poetry, but some of them are mostly preferable. For example, God, nature or relationship are the things that are often seen in the ancient poetry as well as a modern poetry. George Soutar claims that the Greeks were moderns in their thought that nature is wholly indifferent to man. This view handicapped the introduction of external na-ture as an emotional element (Kofoid 73). The truth is that the poetry primarily draws connec-tions between human existence and the outside world. In the poem, the nature can be introduced as a person’s world or as an outside world. “Lake Ice” by Sara Quinn Rivira is a tiny story that, actually, holds a lot of information about the protagonist and her “first marriage” experience. The poem focuses on the nature introduced as a person’s world where the protagonist is shown as

The narrator of “The Fish” initially stresses to portray the fish as worn out comparing its skin to “ancient wall-paper” (Bishop 11). When the narrator caught the “tremendous” (Bishop 1) fish she observed he didn’t fight, but his gills fought the struggle to strain the “terrible oxygen” (Bishop 23) being in air. The narrator illustrates visually dense phrases when comparing the fish eye to her own recognizing they are “larger than mine/ but shallower, and yellowed” (Bishop 35-36). Not a shift in his eye then describes his iris as “seen through the lenses/ of old scratched isinglass” (Bishop 40). Becomes an eye-opening moment for the speaker and even the boat, becoming a moment of empathy and understanding. “I stared and stared/ and victory filled up/ the little rented boat,” (Bishop 67) the vivid personification prepared the reader to understand the dramatic narrative. Completing the image for the reader, “…everything/ was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! / and I let the fish go” (Bishop 74-75) Bishop’s strong use of imagery and personification suggests the fish to hold a

The poem “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop is written with many devices to help illustrate and develop the story of the fish. These help the reader get a clear picture of the message Bishop is communicating. She uses a consistent structure and rhythm . The story could be any fisherman's story, but Bishop uses similes and imagery to allow the reader to understand the same appreciation she had for the fish.

Heavy seasonal rain in rural areas has led to an increase of nutrient loads, from the topsoil into the waterways. This can result in high concentrations of certain chemicals modifying aquatic plants, quality of water affecting the health of trout fish. There are many probable causes resulting to the death of trout fish, which could either be due to the fertiliser or the pH of the stormwater. The main chemicals found in most fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, known collectively as NPK. They are the primary nutrients found in commercial fertiliser, each playing a key role in helping the nutrition of the plant. However, the surrounding farms used a fertiliser rich in ammonium, sulphate and phosphate. Due to the wide range of possible

Then while she holds the fish out of water, she describes his gills, “The frightening gills, / fresh and crisp with blood, / that can cut so badly” (ll. 24-6). Here, there is a contrast between her previous description of the fish, in which it seemed to be ready to die, and the current admiration of it’s underlying power. Bishop continues to use symbolism, with the fish representing nature. The “frightening gills” capable of harm illustrate again nature’s power and capability of staying wild under human attempts of control. Finally, the gills fresh with blood exemplify that nature is a renewable and seemingly infinite supplier of many powerful creatures. Indeed, through imagery and symbolism, it is established that mother nature is not a feeble object or life for humans to bend to their

images which personify the fish as a wise old warrior: the fish is “battered and venerable”

I saw Sunfish, BlueGill, Rock Bass, LargeMouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, River Pike, Trout, Rainbow Trout, River Trout, Channel CatFish, RedTail Suckers, Guppies, Carp, Painted Turtles, Box Turtles, SoftShell Turtles, Crawdad, and Clams.

The verbal-visual collage I organized for Anne Michaels’ poem outlines the figurative imagery of women and nature becoming one. Pictures that demonstrate the idea being portrayed in each line of the poem were used. The main poetic device that Anne Michaels favoured in the poem, “Women on a Beach” was personification and metaphors. The poem is a total of 13 lines, and my collage consequently, contains 13 images. My personal favourite line in this poem is, “Far away in a boat, someone wears a red shirt, / a tiny stab in the pale sky” (line 2-3). I truly enjoy this line because of the bloody image it creates using my senses; it is similar to the blood imagery used in Macbeth by Shakespeare.

She comes, gets in the canoe and goes on their way. Sheila talks and complains, and the narrator catches a fish, maybe the biggest bass he has ever seen, or ever had the chance to catch. The fish tries to escape, and then, they have to go through the sandbar, and he knows that he could easily lose the fish. As he gets past the sandbar, he has a feeling that he lost the fish, but he has to check the pole anyways, and he does. He checks the pole but the fish is still there. He also realizes he needs

Despite feeling admiration towards the fish, this creature was meant to change the way him/her looks at life. Throughout the poem, as there are acknowledgments of the wounds, he/she notices that the fish is aged and clever. Some of the fish’s injuries such as the frayed fish lines hanging from its lip, symbolized its intelligence, “Like medals with their ribbons,... a five-haired beard of wisdom” (61-63). Also by using the scars, he/she begins to realize the special purpose of the fish. Bishop wrote about how the fish withstood all obstacles, unfortunately with scars to prove, but overall came out victorious. The fish’s triumphant influence gets he/she to understand the quality of life.

Moreover, Hughes argues that in order to create an accurate portrait of one aspect of nature, such as a water lily, one must understand its environment. Hughes begins the poem by distinguishing the water and the sky, thus in the opening line the author has already complicated nature’s depiction. Water and sky become “two minds” of the same woman, the pond. The personification of the environment sends a message immediately: this image is not a landscape, but a portrait.

Many, “tall tale”, fish stories were made here, like the time I caught the largest bass ever but decided to let it go, because, “I felt bad for it.” Stumps of trees seem to be growing out of the pool, “that is where I caught my monstrous bass.” The sounds of the bullfrogs, “ribbiting”, and the splashing of the fish are just some of the pieces of nature’s orchestra. A small, gray, metal rowboat, with one oar, lies half on the grassy shore and half in the glistening water. A cool breeze travels across the rippled water and chills your skin, you decide to continue deeper into the unknown, to greet the spectacles that eagerly await your

When Elizabeth Bishop writes a poem of someone’s experience catching a fish, the person catching the fish, presumed as the narrator, describes the fish’s intricate details which essentially gives it an ugly appearance. In an explication of “The Fish,” the analyzer also notes how the narrator’s descriptions yield an ugly appearance of the fish, but with further observation, the narrator realizes the beauty deep within the fish and the fact that the fish is a warrior. The ugly description of the outside of the fish correlates with how some people tend to make a quick judgment based on someone’s appearance without taking the time to think about what their personality or characteristics include. Or even to think about what that person has been through that has caused them to look that way. Evidently, as the poem continues, the narrator reveals that the fish has been through at least five battles, according to the physical scars left in its jaw. The fish, a symbol for anyone who has dealt with difficulties during their life, will persevere even while the outside world continues its routine.