Ryan Martinez
Professor Brouillette
English 68
16 May 2013
To get respect you have to earn it

Big Fish is a novel written by Daniel Wallace in 1998. A young man named William Bloom is losing his father, Edward Bloom, to cancer. Edward Bloom and his son Will share an alienated relationship .Edward has always worked as a traveling salesman, requiring extensive absences from home, which left Will, as a child, feeling neglected. The novel is a collection of stories about his father’s life told by William. William hopes to learn more about his father and himself by putting together the stories he’s collected over the years. Part one is about Edwards’s youth. In part two Edward is an adult and leaves his city of Ashland to go on an adventure. Throughout the novel, Edward gains respect from those around him through his acts of heroism. First and foremost, William tells a story about when Edward is asked by his town to ward off of an evil creature that has destroyed crops and killed animals. Bloom realizes though that the creature was only a man, a very large man living in a very small town. The man’s name was Karl. Edward finds Karl in a cave. He confronts Karl and shows heroism when he says “Eat me, I am the first sacrifice” (Wallace 67). This is heroic because he was willing to die just for the benefit of others. Karl tells Edward that he doesn’t want to eat anybody and only wants food. Edward taught Karl how to farm and Karl never caused any trouble again. Edward saves the town from potentially being destroyed. People admired him from this and his “legend became even bigger. It was said that he could charm anyone, just by walking in the room” ( Wallace 70). Furthermore, Edward’s heroism showed again when William tells a story about when he found and returned an old lady’s glass eye. After a long time of traveling, Edward went to Auburn where an old lady gave him shelter. Afterwards, he promised to find the old lady’s magical glass eye that a group of youths had stolen from her home. At school, Edward found the group of boys who did it and offered to become part of their fraternity. He was told to meet at a barn later that night. Each night the eye was given to a different person as a rite of initiation. The person that possessed it had to return it the following day. Edward took home the eye that night and intended on returning it the old lady. This was especially brave of Edward because the leader told him if he did not return it “then they shall take one of your eyes as recompense” (Wallace 124). The next day Edward came to the barn with the old lady. Her eye was back in her head. The boys and their leader were shocked and stared deeply into the old lady’s glass eye. She was finished and the boys ran off out of the barn. As a result, the old lady was grateful. The boys were so frighten that they gave Edward respect. “He was rarely ever bothered by anybody, for he was thought to be under the protection of the old lady and her all-seeing eye” (Wallace 131). Lastly, William tells a story about when Edward saves a young girl from a killer-dog “and he was the fiercest, most terrible dog of all”. (Wallace 19). He became known as “Helldog”. The little girl came to “Helldog” holding a piece of bread. Edward came and scooped the girl up with one arm and threw the piece of bread at the dog with the other. The vicious dog came at him with a fury and Edward ripped out “Helldog’s” heart. At first, Edwards’s neighbors didn’t like him but after he saved the little girl his neighbors grew fonder of him. The effect that Edward had on his peers from his acts of heroism is that he gained their respect. As a result, the people for whom he performed these acts for thought highly of him. Edward’s heroic acts will continue on to part three of the novel because it is evident that Edward likes to be the hero. William will definitely discover what he needs to know about his father and himself in part three because that’s the most probable ending to the novel. It is the most probable because if William does not find the answers he’s looking for it leaves the ending with too many questions by the reader. One of the messages that the author is trying to give to the reader is that to get respect you have to earn it.

Work Cited
Wallace, Daniel. Big Fish. Algonquin Books: New York, 2012. Print.