Jeff Trangsrud PHI-105-2 (040613) 4:30pm-5:45pm Question 1
Several times Edward Bloom told the story about the birth of his son Will and how he retrieved his golden wedding ring from the big fish on the day that his son was born. We find out later in the movie from Dr. Bennet, their family doctor, that he had a normal birth and that his father was out of town on business the day he was born. Ed’s story about the witch with a glass eye, which reveals the eventual death of anyone who looks into it. According to Ed, he and his friends all saw how their lives would end. These stories were not true. Will discovered, when he and his wife had rushed home from Paris after getting word his father was ill, there was a poetic truth behind many of his father’s stories. The giant Carl was a very tall man, but not a giant animal killer. The Siamese twins, Ping and Jing, were indeed twins but not conjoined. Sandra Templeton, his mother, who he first saw at the circus where he met his eventual lifelong friends, the ringmaster Amos Calloway, and the clown/attorney, Mr. Soggybottom, really did exist. The town of Spectre was a real town. Norther Winslow, the famous poet from his hometown of Ashton, really did exist and was a friend of Ed’s. When he was going through his father’s belongings he found a deed of a home his dad bought from Jenny in the town of Spectre. These characters and places in Ed’s life all came to fruition at the funeral and provided Will the proof he had been seeking all of his adult life and the truth behind his father’s incredible life. Granted the stories his father told were true but he added a little extra flavor to make them bigger than life itself.

Question 2 Will is a writer of stories and has compassion also. It was definitely morally good for him to play along with his father’s death fantasy. After finding the truths to most of his father’s stories, it wouldn’t be right to insist on realism as he did for so long. It was a perfect ending to Ed’s amazing life story and exactly what he was looking for. He kept saying, while lying in the hospital bed that, “this isn’t how I go.” Nobody knew what he claimed to see in the witch’s glass eye, but he knew this is how he didn't want to go; he needed his death story to be more colorful, which is what Will provided him in the end.
Question 3 My thoughts on what Martha Nussbaum might say to the story of The Big Fish is that because of her philosophy, we were able to live the life of Edward Bloom through his amazing stories, and see them from different points of views and the moral problems that they can cause. I am not sure I understand life any better except I believe that sometimes reality is not that exciting. It is what it is, unless we were to put it in a descriptive and visual story to make it fun, especially to younger children so that we can show them that all of life’s experiences are what we believe and fun. I believe that Will does have a better understanding of his life, and wished he would have found the truth earlier, since his beliefs of the stories created a rift between him and his father. I am sure Will wished he could have spent more time with him before his death. He found out the truths, and the fabrication of some of the stories, to make them larger than life, which made them hard to believe. The end of the movie we see Will was passing the stories on to his children. It would be interesting to know if it affected his writing of stories.
Question 4 My mother’s husband, John, not my father, is always telling stories like they just happened yesterday. The experiences he had and the people he encountered throughout his life are the focus of his stories. I have learned that John’s stories are usually about things that happened or people he encountered over 30 years ago. I haven’t known John for long nor have I met the people in his stories so I, like Will, find it hard without validation to believe them. Never knowing him while I was growing up, I find myself forming my own opinions, based on what little I know of him now I never understood him and probably never will, except I see that he is very dedicated to my mother, and that is all that matters.
Question 5 Tall tales are exaggerated stories and to lie is delivering a false statement to another person which the speaking person knows is not the whole truth, intentionally. Tall tales are morally accepted and can be a fun way to provide a unique opportunity to help people sharpen their thinking, listening, language and communication skills. Lies generally are not accepted but sometimes you don’t know that it is a lie being told, sometimes a lie needs to be told if you might find yourself in an unsafe situation, to protect yourself or others.