Story Time

After watching the movie, I see more clearly how the storyline goes. I understand the flashbacks and how Edward feels while expressing them. What really shocked me the most was how Edward reacted to all the occurrences, true or make believe, that happen to him. When he first meet the Witch, and she told him his death, he seemed...calm. I know I would never be that accepting of my own death. If I was to drown, I'd never go near large bodies of water that are deep enough for me to drown in. If it was told that the way I would die by fire, I would request that there never be candles on my birthday cake. It's true that it sounds as though I'd live my life in a bubble, because I would. Edward doesn't do that, he takes it in stride and lives his life! He even uses it to his advantage. In the scene where he goes to confront Carl the Giant, he tells himself that he has nothing to fear because he knows that that isn't how he dies. That's defiantly something incredible.

I find it difficult to pin point one moral in this story. There are so many good ones, but I think the main one is, Life is about how you choose to interpret it. You can either take a bad thing, like learning about your own death or the love of your life slipping through your fingers, and sit in the pain and hurt of the situation...or you can turn it around and us it to your advantage. Like in the way Edward works for years just to get information about Sandra so he can make her fall in love with him. It's all very romantic and beautiful, but only because thats how he choose to make it.

The metaphor behind "Big Fish" is as big as the fish itself. But how I mainly took it is Edward being the big fish in a little pond, expanded his region and took ahold of life. As his son grew and was told these "big fish" stories, he found himself resenting his father and his miscellaneous stories. Though Edward stop his traveling, his mind never stopped thinking of his tales and Will never stop hating the stories. In Will's mind the "Big Fish", is more like the "Elephant in the room", and less his fathers life stories. While Edward falls sick, Will demands the real version of the stories, and as Edward insists the original stories are the real stories it only causes Will to get angry. It is only after Edwards death does Will realizes that, though exaggerated, the stories are true and the "big fish" is real Edward life. (Sorry it took so long to get to my point, the thoughts where all jumbled in my head).

I play mostly background characters, so seeing the movie doesn't really help with much, but it does help me understand the time and setting of the play and how I should be behaving in the play.