Caitlin Craven

Professor Truffin

ENGL 102-10

17 February 2016

Gone Fishin’

As a tremendous fish hung at the end of the line, the fisherman holds it beside the boat pondering what to do with this fish. The fisherman then carefully surveys the fish and all of its features. After thoroughly studying the fish, the lines were cut and the fish is set free. Many readers may wonder why the fisherman ultimately decides to let the fish go, yet in Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish”, the fisherman must make the ultimate decision of whether to keep the fish or turn it loose by identifying with the fish and its condition. Through visual imagery and a sense of pity, a relationship between the fisherman and the fish is formed leading to the ultimate decision to let the fish go. With this “battered and venerable and homely” fish hanging from the hook from his mouth, the fisherman analyzes the rough, scaly skin and large eyes with sympathy (8-9). Looking at the fish, it appears to be old, because of its “brown skin” that “hung in strips like ancient wallpaper” (10-11). Even if the fish is “old and grotesque to the untrained or empathetic eye,” the reader becomes fixed on this fish that is “blurred and imperfect” (McCabe 95). With the flaws and imperfections of the fish, the fisherman starts to pity the fish. The fisherman once again sympathizes with the fish because it has withstood “barnacles forming on his skin, cut gills, and five big hooks,” which still remain (16-17). The fish is still, there is no tension on the line, simply a “grunting weight” (7). As the fisherman examines the fish, the lines that hang from the hooks represent “medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering” because it accounts for all the fisherman he has escaped in his past (61-62). The fish “now assumes the mock-role of tribal elder or hero” because of his wounds, “medals” hanging from his lips and freshly cut gills (Doreski 40). The fisher realizes the pain and suffering in the fish and Bishop then must “contemplate her position as the harbinger of death” on the fish (Doreski 40). Due to the fish’s age and strength, it leads to the ultimate decision made by the fisherman to let him go. The fisherman allows the fish to continue fighting off other fisherman and collecting medals on his gills. Even though the fish does not fight when he is out of the water, there is a hidden predicament the fish faces. Bishop describes the fish “breathing in the terrible oxygen,” yet oxygen is beneficial to the human being, it was not for the fish. Longing for the water, the fish still did not move or fight the “terrible oxygen” (23). When the fish is out of the water, “nature is mastered as static knowledge” (Costello 64). The fisherman peers into the eyes of the fish, which gives the reader a visual imagery of the sympathy toward the fish “…it can’t keep, but must be let go” (McCabe 96). The struggle in which the fish goes through is not prevalent, yet the fisherman describes the fish’s appearance and physical attributes through pity which leads to the eventual release. The fisherman not only catches the fish, yet creates a bond. Admiration is the base of the bond that is created between the two. The fisherman catches the fish, yet lets the fish go, which gives the fish another chance at life. The choice of letting the fish go ends up being the best decision for both the fisherman and the fish because the fisherman has a new outlook on life and the fish continues to live and fight. Victory was called once the fish was caught, yet the true victory in the eyes of the fisherman was releasing the fish. Not only is admiration evident, respect is also among the fish and the fisherman. The respect of the wounds, age, and fight within the fish. While fishing in this “little rented boat,” the fisherman reconsiders her opinion on the old boat, because of her meeting with the fish. This old boat becomes astounding and ties “the relationship with her and the fish to the boat” (McCabe 96). As the relationship grows between the fish and the fisherman, the imagination of the fisherman “transforms a ‘pool of bilge/ where oil had spread a rainbow’ into an ecstatic rainbow” (Costello 64). The fisherman challenges life through her moral decision of setting the fish free. The acknowledgment and persistence are seen from the fisherman to the life of the fish with the many abrasions and hooks hanging from his wet lips. Most would decide to keep the fish and cook it, however, the fisherman chooses does not do so. Letting go of the fish, allows the fisherman to feel a sense of victory, because of the decision to allow the fish to continue to live. The fish might have skin like “old brown wallpaper,” but he has lived a full life as seen through the five hooks and remaining fishing line hanging from his lips. His fullness of life is comparable to all of the colors of the rainbow-creating a beautiful life lived to its fullness. Upon recognizing the fish and all of its splendor, the fisherman then begins to appreciate life and all it has to offer. Upon seeing the rainbow, the fisherman knows the decision of letting the fish go was the right decision. Leading the fishermen to think about the “little rented boat, the oarlocks on their strings, and the barnacle infested fish” (Bishop). In this poem, it “recognizes differences” yet transforms into “apprehending unity, into perceiving connection and its frailty” (McCabe 96). Due to the story’s visual imagery, it goes into great deal about the differences between the fish and the fisherman, yet it then starts to express unity between the two by the fisherman demonstrating pity toward the life of the fish. The unity that is created between the fish and the fisherman leads to the ultimate decision of letting the fish go. Many may see the encounter as a simple fishing trip with no symbolic meaning or connection, the poem digs within the “psychological” instead of the “earthly particulars” (Doreski 40). Bishop examines not only the earthly parts of the fishing trip, yet demonstrates a connection that begins a relationship between the fisherman and the fish. The description of the fish and its physical attributes are ugly. As the fish hangs from the side of the boat, the fisherman looks into the large eyes of the fish and sees the fish hooks, barnacles, and all that nature has done over time. Connecting with the fish and expressing pity toward the fish, the fisherman realizes this fish was not meant for dinner, it was meant to live the life full of color like a rainbow. In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish”, the growing relationship between an old fish and a fisherman is examined. What seemed to be simply a fishing trip, became a realization that life is made up of choices. The choice whether to live life to its fullest potential and let the fish go, or take the life of the fish for a temporary pleasure. Imagery is planted in this poem in order to further the relationship of the fisherman and the fish. As simple as a fish may seem, Bishop makes this poem lifelike, simply by connecting the fisherman to the fish through the fisherman expressing admiration and respect toward an old fish from the water. The final decision of letting the fish go offers the fisherman a sense of hope, pride, and happiness accompanied by a beautiful rainbow.

Works Cited

McCabe, Susan. “Artifices of Independence." Elizabeth Bishop: Her Poetics of Loss. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 1994. 94-96. Print.
Costello, Bonnie. "Attractive Mortality." Elizabeth Bishop: Questions of Mastery. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1991. 63-64. Print.
Doreski, Carole. Elizabeth Bishop: The Restraints of Language. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Print.
Giroux, Robert. "The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop." Poets.org. The Academy American Poets, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.