Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Big Fish--Personal Responses

Please post your individual responses here--you should respond to one of the flowing questions:
1.) What is one of the central themes of the story, and how does it apply to another piece of work we have studied this year? You should reference at least one other text we have studied?
2.) By watching this movie what has 'bloomed' for you? You should reference something you have learned about one of the literary terms we have studied, one theme, and include one personal lesson you will carry with you.
3.) How does the film teach us about the importance of story telling--what are the purposes of stories, how does stories make people and events immortal, and what do they tell us about our own relationships? You should reference specific moments from the film but also include other thoughts you have about this question that has run through so many of the conversations, and stories, we have shared this year in English class.

Some more specific guidelines about these responses:
-you should include a reference to at least one aphorism, symbol, and theme. You should make reference to at least two characters and motifs. Please feel free to use the character profiles, theme explanations, and motif responses you have completed as groups.
-your responses can contain I, and they should be personal reflections/thoughts. However, I would encourage you to make sure that they adhere to the guidelines. Simply, you have to play within the rules, but you also have the chance to be creative.
-they should be a minimum of five-hundred words
-they should adhere to the rules of good writing. Really make sure that every sentence is clear and direct, but more to the point on this personal assignment really work on infusing your prose with depth of thought and sophistication of expression.

Due:
These responses are due Monday at the start of the class--with that being said, I would highly encourage you to start working on them soon because you will have reading over the weekend.

15 comments:

Lydia W said...

This is the first half of my Response-- The post can't exceed 4,096 characters :(

Telling as story is one of the prominent symbols in Big Fish. The movie teaches us about the importance of storytelling. Edward’s stories made me realize that people become immortal through stories. Stories pass down a history. They share personal values and lessons with the listener. Edward always shares stories with the people around him. He wants everyone to be entertained as well as know about his past. I believe that because Edward lived such an amazing life with so many adventures, his stories were harder for the listener to decipher fact from fiction, which frustrated Will because he thought Edward was lying. Edward’s story about fighting in Vietnam portrays the struggles of a soldier. Even though his story is specific to what he saw and lived through, it tells a similar story that many soldier can relate to. The general ‘idea’ of the story will live on forever and become immortal because so many people can relate to the story of war, and it has been told so many times.

The dictionary definition of a story is:
Noun: A message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events

That is what all of Edward’s stories do—they tell important events in his life; Will’s birth, his marriage to Sandra, and his adventures around the world.

The motif of doors helps to develop the idea of a story. Every time a door is opened in Big Fish, a new story is told. When a door closes, there is an end to a story. Doors are openings to different parts of people’s lives. Each one contains a different part of a person’s life. When Will walks upstairs in his parent’s house in the movie, he walks down the hallway past many doors. One leads to his childhood (his bedroom) one leads to his parent’s room where Edward is dying, and others lead to different memories and stories about his past.

Stories tell us about our relationships with people and the world around us in many different ways. In Big Fish, there are many different examples of how stories affect relationships. Will is not very close with his father. The stories that his father tells him draws their relationship apart because Will doesn’t believe that the stories are truthful. When Will talks to Jenny about Edwards past however, Jenny tells Will that “you are real to your father”. This statement helps Will to realize how important it is to his father to tell his stories—especially to him. This exchange of events helps to bring out a major theme in Big Fish: understanding the other side of a situation is sometimes more valuable than believing in it. After Will makes this revelation, he decides to spend as much time with his father as possible. The biggest change in Will’s personality from the beginning to the end of the movie was when he told his father a story right before he died. Will’s relationship grew with his father when he understood his father’s point of view. Just as Will’s relationship grew as he began to understand his father’s point of view, I have taken this lesson away from the movie. When I disagree with what someone is doing or saying I try to understand it from their point of view. By understanding why they did something, I tend to find more sympathy in their actions or words. When we understand each other, our relationship grows and we feel more trust in the other person.

Lydia W said...

Here is the second half of my response :)

Throughout the year, we have shared assignments and stories with each other in class. Whenever someone shares a story, they are trusting that we will find an understanding what they say and tell us. Whenever someone shares something in class, they add it to ‘their story’ as well as ‘our story’ as English 9A. What we share with each other in class is a small snippet of a story, and that bit gets added to the rest of their experiences to create one large story of their life. By sharing our stories in class, we are taking a step closer to becoming immortal. The more memorable our stories are, the more of an affect they will leave on others.

Immortality is like a cat, and cats are a motif in the movie Big Fish. Cats are said to have ‘nine lives’, and although this isn’t entirely true, they do seem to survive many unexpected accidents that people would not survive from if they were put into a similar situation. I think that Jenny’s character helps Will to realize that Edward will become immortal and that it is OK for him to pass on. Whenever Will is around Jenny, she has cats with her. She shows him that Edward won’t go until it is his time because he saw how he was going to die in the witch’s glass—and the same actress plays the witch and Jenny’s character. Edward always told Will that “this isn’t how I go”, and he was always right.

Big Fish had many examples of how stories influence a person’s life and relationships with others. This movie helped to reiterate to me that it is better to understand and accept people’s points of views than it is to believe in something.

Izzie W said...

One of the central themes in Big Fish is understanding people and learning to accept them. Most examples in the movie of someone understanding a person and then accepting them lay within Ed Bloom’s stories. Ed Bloom tells these stories to people to teach them different lessons. Within many of the stories Ed has met someone considered unusual or odd and he has acknowledged their “problem” and moved beyond it by helping them. Ed helps Karl the giant by being brave enough to confront him then encourage him that his extreme height was a good thing and that although he was unlike other people he could still make a difference. Ed taught the basic same lesson to the Siamese twins Ping and Jing. Some people could have looked that them and been confused, scared, or intimidated, but Ed make friends with them by being nice and helping them with their dream to become entertainers. Those three people weren’t the only ones Ed appreciated for their differences. But one of the biggest examples in Big Fish of this theme is Will Bloom’s view to his father Ed Bloom. It wasn’t until the end that Will finally understood Ed and his crazy stories and accepted him. His whole life prior was him convincing himself that Ed only tells these stories to make himself seem braver and that most of them are fabrications anyway. Ed finally learned that the stories had meaning and that the father wasn’t a liar at the end when Ed and Will are in the hospital together. Doctor Bennet had just told Will that sometimes fantasies are better than realities and when Ed asked Will to tell him what he saw in the witch’s eye as a child; Will then created a final story for his dying father. It was then when Will finally understood the purpose of Ed’s stories and from that understanding, he accepted his father.
Those stories, as Will learned, weren’t just entertaining and fun lies but they actually taught lessons and contained truth. That’s what Will needed and learned at last. This idea of understanding and accepting isn’t a new one however and comes from many of our third quarter discussions in English 9A. Back then we talked about understanding people’s past and what they had to go through to become the people they are today. I think that lesson applies to Big Fish and that theme. In class Mr. Kasprzak also brought in stories like the one about Black English, and the one about the people in the prison, but the one that this lesson relates to most is the podcast with Jeffrey Rudol. In that podcast, Jeffrey confronts his parents and tells them he’s gay. His parents then shun him and cut off all communication with him. Jeffrey tells this story not because he’s looking for attention or sympathy, but because he would like to teach people the value of understanding and accepting. In his story he concludes by saying that there can never be too much acceptance and I completely agree with him. Although I recognized that lesson back in the third quarter, I now will apply directly to life more as a result of watching Big Fish.

Sarah P said...

The film Big Fish teaches many lessons about storytelling and stories themselves. Stories are good for entertaining people young and old. The film illustrates this nicely because one of the themes is that people use stories to glorify their lives. Will Bloom believes that this is what his father Ed is doing. Will forgets that at the root of every fantastical story is at least a grain of truth. Ed uses stories as a way of sharing his life, although most of it is hyperbolized. With stories, entertainment value is what matters, and that is mainly how Ed Bloom crafts his stories; for their entertainment value. One of Ed’s main reasons for the stories is to gain attention, to make people notice him, to make himself believe that he is important, and that his ideas are worth something. Stories are a way for people to escape from their lives and into another world, with problems and characters of its own. It is through this world that people are able, at least for a little while, to forget about all their problems and to become immersed the world of someone else, and worry about their problems for a change.

When people hear stories they like, or if something happens to someone, the stories are told over and over again, and through this, stories and their contents can become immortal. In Big Fish, Ed Bloom’s stories become immortal though his son, who retells the stories to his son. The more a story is told, the more it changes. The order of events may change as with the story of Ed and Jenny, or they may be exaggerated as with Ed and Karl. While the stories are mostly true, as in the case of Ed and Jenny, the story of the witch and her eye takes place when Ed is still a child, and Jenny is an old lady, when in reality it took place when Ed was in his 30s or 40s and Jenny was in her 20s or 30s. This is also the case with Ed and Karl, because as the stories go along, Karl gets bigger and bigger, and in real life, we was only about twice as tall as Don price, the ring master of the circus. Because of all of these stories, Ed makes himself immortal in his son and grandson’s mind, and probably in the minds of their children as well.

The stories Ed tells in the movie really help to accentuate his relationship with Will. Will doesn’t believe a word of what his father tells him. During a confrontation, Ed informs his son that he had been telling him the truth his whole, he just refused to listen to it. This is good advice for anyone, because it basically means that you hear what you want to hear, so just stop and truly listen to what is being said. In the movie, the fish is a symbol for a task that a character has that seems impossible, which for Will is believe his father’s stories and for Ed it is to make his son believe his stories. Ed and Will’s father-son relationship is a trained one, it is similar to the first story of Spectre that Ed tells. The shoes are caught up on the line, meaning they have to stay, but neither wants to be there. This story occurs repeated in real life, but it doesn’t always end as well as it does for Ed and Will.

Anonymous said...

Andrew Waterhouse

2.)
I bloomed. That would be probably the best word to describe it. I think everything that the movie Big Fish has taught me has been inside me the whole time but just needed to find its way out. Big Fish was its key. 
 Big Fish threw a lot of ideas and lessons at me in a single incriment of 2 hours, making it really difficult to choose only one that has affected me the most. Big Fish has really affected me. It differed from other movies in the sense that it was not just a performance for my amusement, but a serious of ideas for my mind to synthesize with.
 Throughout his life, Edward Bloom knows how he shall die, which allows him to have unlimited bravery and confidence. His knowledge of how his death will take place makes him fearless because he in times he should feel fear, he reminds himself that he lives through it. He looks into the motif of the witch's eye that showed him how he will die, but at the same time the I being himself and who he is. What I took away from this is the idea that we all could have more confidence. We could look into the I/eye more. I am not ignorantly being another teenager that thinks they are immortal, but I do believe that we all could be a bit more brave.  
 The fearlessness possessed by Edward Bloom unlocks many doors for him in his life. He gives an aphorism that demonstates his determination, "There's a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost... the ship has sailed and only a fool would continue. Truth is... I've always been a fool." He marries the love of his life because his determination drives him to  work three years to know her and eventually meet her. He meets one of his best friends, Karl, because he has the bravery to attempt to sacrifice himself for his town. He also gains the key to his town for ridding it of Karl. The ambition that Edward Bloom has gives him his great life that he treasures so.  
 I have also bloomed in the sense of story telling. When I was younger, I love fantasy and dragons and such. My mom would read me stories of them and I loved them until my sister revealed to me that they were fake. I lost all interest in dragons and assumed  the next best thing that was real: reptiles. They didn't fascinate me nearly as much as dragons did, but at least they were real. Just like Will Bloom, I enjoyed the disgusting taste of the truth more than the blissful lies. On his father's deathbed with the helpful words of Dr. Bennett, Will Bloom realizes that it's the fabrications  in stories that spark our interest and that all of things Will though of as lies were really truths with little touches of embellishment over them. Every word Edward Bloom spoke was part of himself, but Will only realizes this at the end of his father's game.
The theme that I think compiles the most of what Big Fish gives is "Live life full of ambition, for one lacking it is not worth living. Tell life with a doucing of fabrication, for on without any is not worth hearing." Big Fish taught me that a head held high gets a better view, a main course of truth with a spice of lies satisfies a stomach.  

Anonymous said...

A flower can take up to three months to bloom. By watching the movie the "Big Fish" nothing has immediately bloomed for me. I am a flower that will be gradually blooming throughout my whole life. The "Big Fish" has helped me perceive on which direction I would like to bloom and how I will fend off the mishaps on my way. I have learned many things in my life by watching the failure of others and knowing what not to do. Similarly, when Will Bloom took his fathers stories for granted it has taught me to never take the people I love for granted. Little does Will know, his father was just trying to make Will as satisfied as possible with the little changes he made in each story. Sometimes the real love people give to another is done by the little things that are hardly noticed. The theme I take to heart is the acceptance and rejection of change. I have realized that the more opportunities I take on, the more I will grow and the faster I will bloom. The motif of water has really influenced my choice of theme because the repetitive image has caused me to believe that the water representing life shows the chain reaction from rejecting or accepting change influences how your life will turn out. The biggest life lesson that has touched me from the “Big Fish” is that you always have to accept and deal with the changes in life because those changes that you’ve accepted will come back and be beneficial for your future and your well-being.

~Conor McFarland

Anonymous said...

Stories are stories, not straight facts. That’s why when a dad is telling his son a story, he rarely say exactly what happens because the kid wont enjoy the story as much as if the dad added some things that weren’t fully true but made the story a whole lot better. When Will is making up the story about how his dad dies while those two are in the hospital, he gets excited when he adds things about the story that aren’t true but would be cool if they really happened. Ed Bloom also likes that his son finally understands where he is coming from when he adds flair to his stories. Stories make people immortal so much more than in real life. A couple of the stories that Ed tells to other people have people, including himself that are immortal. Some of these examples are Karl, Ping and Jing, the witch, and himself when he knows that he’s not going to die in very scary moments such as when he is walking through the woods before he gets to Spectre and he is being attacked by the trees that are alive. Someone else that is immortal in the stories is in the one that Will Bloom tells to his dad about how he dies. Ed Bloom in the story turns into the big fish when he gets dropped into the water. The importance of telling stories is very critical. If people never told stories, then life would be very boring, especially as a kid when all you know is facts and don’t get told stories about things that aren’t really true. It’s not really lying when you tell a story that isn’t true; it’s bringing some excitement into young people’s lives. Stories such as Christmas stories about Santa: every kid knows them and most of them believe them until a certain age. I guess what I am saying is that stories aren’t just fun to hear, they are a necessity.
~Jon Malloy~

Benn said...

RESPONSE NO. 1
The movie Big Fish focuses on a theme of individualism and glorified storytelling. A motif that brings out this theme is the recurring image of bigger-than-average fish. First, the title of the movie is almost a dead giveaway. Then, the movie starts off with the story the father tells of fighting a monstrous catfish that can only be caught using a something special, like a wedding ring. All throughout the stories of Edward Bloom, people keep making comments about him that relate to being a big fish; “A big fish gets that way by never getting caught.” “You’re quite a catch.” “You were a big fish, but that was a small pond…” This recurring image emphasizes that Bloom is a budding individual, because he’s a bigger fish than everybody else is, and because he doesn’t “get caught” or allow unimportant things to stop him.
Another image that helps show a theme is the Siamese Japanese twins Bloom meets during the war. Following juxtaposition, the scene of the Siamese twins is shown right next to a scene of the father and son arguing about the father’s stories, which the son believes are untruthful. This positioning of scenes uses the Siamese twins to show that just because the father and son each have their own values for stories (the father’s stories are interesting and the son’s are truthful) the two story versions cannot be similar or connected.

RESPONSE NO. 2
In Big Fish, there is a motif (recurring theme) of fishing and catching. First of all, the movie starts off with the father telling story about a monstrous catfish that can only be caught using something as special as a wedding ring for bait. Next, when Edward Bloom leaves his home town, a witch advises him that “the biggest fish gets that way by never getting caught”. Again, the theme of a big fish is brought up to emphasize the importance of making a difference and being an individual. Then, during the festival in the town of Spectre, a lady says, “You’re quite a catch”, again bringing up the motif of being a big fish worthy of catching. Finally, at the carnival, the manager tells Edward Bloom that he was a “big fish where he came from, but that was a small pond, and this is the ocean, the real world”. The constant image of fishing and catching big fish creates a mood and message that helps the watcher determine the bigger meaning behind the title and the movie.

Martinen said...

3.)I answered number three

Stories can do many things for many people. They can open minds to new ideas and concepts but they can also instill hurt and pain into the people who know them. The type of story that is being told always depends on the person who is telling it. Each storyteller has his own elegance and style that he adds to the stories he tells. One specific story could be told ten different ways depending on who is telling the story.

We started the school year off with a few questions. One of these questions being, “What is the importance of storytelling”. The movie, Big Fish, gives an abundance of insight into the answers to this question. With the movie starting out with all these fathers telling the same story, I can really see how much the attitude and tone of a story can change. When the movie finally arrives at the great storyteller, Edward Bloom, there is no doubt that he loves what he does. I think that all he is trying to do is make the people around him happy through the stories he tells. Edward makes the stories he tells, his life and sooner or later that is what they become; his entire life. His life becomes a series of stories and I think that is what all of our lives are made of. We all of different experiences and memories with all kinds of people and together they make up our lives but apart, these memories are different stories just waiting to be told.

When Edward’s son, Will, matures into an adult, he begins to question the stories he was told by his father as a child. Edward’s believed that all of his stories were based off of factual events but Will felt like he needed evidence to be able to believe his father. The fact was that most of Edward’s stories were actually based on the events that happened in his lifetime. For example Karl the Giant was actually just a really tall man and the Siamese twins were a pair of Chinese twins. This shows me that stories are not always fictional but can be very factual. Stories can be factual but I do not think facts are everything we should rely on. If Will had not focused so much on the facts of his father’s life, he might have had a better relationship with his father.

What is immortality? Can anything or anyone really make someone immortal? I do believe that stories can get you pretty close to immortality. By telling and listening to stories we keep memories alive. We preserve our minds and bodies in a way that can only be named as immortal, though we do not stay like that for long. This immortal high only last through the end of the story and will linger until the next story to be told has begun. As the next story begins we begin to live once again. We all hate to live in the past but it is how we truly stay alive.

Anonymous said...

One of the main themes in Big Fish, are the celebratory events in Edward Bloom’s life. All of the events of his life are shown in a positive and celebratory light. Big Fish makes it seem as if all experiences in life are good and lead you to become a better person living in a better world. All of Edward’s stories are also told in a celebratory manner, such as the stories of his birth, his jobs, the birth of Will, and his death. His death is the story that amazed me the most. The fact that Edward was carried through all of the people that he had ever known and cared about were all there, supporting him, and celebrating his life, cheering him on into the next life, everyone smiling and reassuring him as he is carried past, waving to all of his well-wishers. Even as he died, his death was extravagant and positive, as though death was just another of his adventures. I think that this theme also applies to Romeo and Juliet, where in the end, they both look forward to death as they think of being with each other in the next life. Death with each other is better than life alone.
The glass eye represents fear, and bravery to me. When Edward looks into the eye and understands what he sees, it shows his bravery and his fearlessness of life. This show of courage and understanding has taught me to take life as it comes and to not be afraid or anxious about it. What’s going to happen is going to happen and there is nothing that I, or anyone else can do about it.
Big Fish has taught me how important story telling is to me. Even if it is exaggerated and blown out of proportion, it is important to accept and enjoy the way that the story is told. Stories are food for your imagination, they make you think and wonder about what is possible. Stories and legends are timeless. They never grow old and they never wear out. Some stories I have never gotten tired of hearing, and every time I hear them they change slightly, making each time they’re told more interesting. Edward always tells the same stories, but he says them in different words, and everyone but Will can’t get enough of them.
-Hallie Coon

Maddy K said...

The symbolism in Big Fish forced me to think while I was watching the movie. I learned that anything can be a symbol, but they are typically simple, like fish or water, which enables everyone to fully comprehend the symbol. Symbols are easy to find, because they repeat themselves throughout the entire story. Understanding the symbols is the key to understanding a story.
While watching Big Fish, one aphorism bemused me. Will was waiting silently in his father’s hospital room when the Doctor said, “I hate when people try to talk to those who can’t hear them.” I understood the literal meaning of this, but could not understand the full extent of what the doctor was trying to say. After pondering these words I created a theme that represents my thoughts on this aphorism. People prolong the end in order to refrain from accepting a new beginning. This image of prolonging the end is repeated throughout Big Fish. One motif that goes along with this theme is time. Time slows down when Edward first sees Sandra. He is prolonging the moment, because he knows he will not see her again for a long time. A symbol that influences this theme is a door. A closed door has the ability to hold things in, and keep others out. An example of this is when Edward visits Jenny and asks to buy her house. She refuses, but when he goes to leave the door won’t open. Even after it opens Edward is stuck in the house. The idea of the door holding him in has prolonged his time in Spectra. The last time the door opens, he is able to leave and start the next chapter in his life. This is also what ends the story Jenny is telling which allows another to begin.

I have not learned any new lessons from watching Big Fish, but I have become aware of many lessons that I had forgotten. The most important relates back to the aphorism that the doctor said. Don’t dwell on something that is already gone, it can only extend the time of hurt and pain. The image of a wake forces its way into my mind every time I think of this lesson. In my life, I have only been to one or two wakes. All I remember is a crowd of people who go up to a coffin, and talk to the person that has passed away. This confuses me, after watching Big Fish. The person that has died is unable to hear us, but we prolong their life by talking to them. This connects to Big Fish because Edward’s life is prolonged. Before Edward goes into the river and dies, he gives his wife his wedding ring. All this will do is remind her that her husband is no longer alive.

Anonymous said...

Story telling is one of the most important things in the world, where there have always been stories since the beginning of humanity. In the early times stories would be passed down from generation to generation and it would continue that way because it was a way to bond with their kids or their friends. Stories are meant to be fun and an entertainment whether that means you have to lie here or there so bee it. It’s a tall tale that can be based on real life things. The important thing is not if their true or not but that you enjoyed them and u had fun telling and being told them. These stories become immortal because everyone knows them and everyone knows who was the maker of the stories and how they were told. They can be real inspiration to people and inspire them to do amazing things and tell their own stories. Yet when you have an immortal story, it’s because they will never die they will always be passed down and told. These stories also tell us about our relationships with others as when there in the stories or the stories is about them. Like in Big Fish Will thought his dad ruined the story of him being born because he told everyone he caught a fish, but he also said it was the best day of his life. Whether it was because of the fish or if it truly was because of Will being born. Still the story was interesting never the less. Then sometimes you may even be surprised to find a story you thought had to be completely un true then find out in the end it was true. You should always leave room to believe.

Ricky Kramer

Anonymous said...

Chris Richards
Andrew Kasprzak
English 9-A
April 5, 2010

The Art of Storytelling


“Our voices were strong. It was a good night to sing and we sang for all we were worth, as if we’d been saved.” Tobias Wolff ends his story with these words. These words however, accentuating the symbolism of songs for the use of his work in showing the theme of This Boy’s Life, apply to storytelling as much as singing. The story of Big Fish, focusing around the life of Edward Bloom, teaches the value, truth, and purpose of storytelling; and it is the pieces that culminate to form the importance of storytelling. Edward tells his stories for all he is worth, modifying details to add “flavor” as he calls it, but that is the point of storytelling. Storytelling allows you to create, enhance, and articulate about, a true legend.
Edward Bloom’s stories illustrate the art of using a thousand lies to tell one truth. In the words of the poet Oscar Wilde, “Truth is rarely pure and never simple.” William Bloom proves this so in his quest for reconciliation with his father and his search for the truth in his stories. Will is a reporter who always seeks fact, which he considers to be truth; however there is a vast different between fact and truth. Facts have to be quantified and proven, but truth is rarely whole and straightforward. Edward tells the story of how he was shipped off to war and volunteers for the most difficult positions in order to shorten his length of service. One could be skeptical, as in the case of William, and assume this story as a lie; but at the same time from a different vantage point, you can see the truth of the story; his love for Sandra always brought him back to her. The conflict between fact and truth occurs in Big Fish when Will attacks his father’s stories and describes them as lies because he cannot see how they can be proven; Edward responds with these words, “I've been nothin' but myself since the day I was born, and if you can't see that it's your failin', not mine.” When Edward draws the parallel between his stories and himself, stating that he has always been himself, he is describing how his stories told truths about himself. Edward Bloom used miniscule alterations of facts to paint an honest picture of him, allowing his son to see the 90% of his identity, which William believed he would never witness.
Storytelling allows a legend to live on long after the hero has passed on. A story will thrive, develop, and grow within the memories of others, but only the sharing of the story ensures its survival. Near the end of Big Fish, William Bloom’s son is telling a story; his grandfather’s story of Karl the giant. The fact that this scene takes place at the end of the movie signifies the importance of storytelling as means of remembering a legend. This point is accentuated when the other boys Will’s son is speaking with do not believe him, but he convinces them of the validity of the story by asking his father. The chain of storytellers, grandfather, to father, to son, shows how the individuals who spread the stories will preserve a legend.

Anonymous said...

Through the act of storytelling, morals, lessons, and teachings will pass on to those who listen. Each story Edward told had a point to it, whether it was a lesson he learned, or a lesson he taught to another. This value of storytelling cannot be measured in gold, money, or numbers, but rather those who hear the story, and what they learn from it measures its worth. When Edward tells Will the stories of his life when Will is in his youth, Will probably focused little to none on the factual value, and entirely on the lessons, his father was teaching him. It is only after true introspection of himself that William rediscovers this value in his adulthood. William sees his father for who he truly was and is when he tells the end of Edward’s greatest story, his life. When he is put in the shoes of his father, allowing himself to manipulate the details, he can see that his father never told a lie to him, but rather used them to tell his son the truth of who he was. I can relate the effect of these stories best with the stories of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth fairy. A large majority of children, myself included in this group, grew up believing the stories of these three figures. We grow up and we see through the pleasantly laid picture to try to find the truth. Reflecting upon my own discovery, I believed these figures to stand for nothing other than lies; I was wrong to assume such a thing. Is it lying when you tell a child that giving to others is a decent thing to do?
I ask this because this is a value that a figure, a legend, stands for. The values that we stand for and things that we believe in create truth for us, and that is all that really matters. Instead of seeing an overweight man climbing down chimneys, see what is there; a legend, with a lesson to pass on.
Storytelling is the art creating a legacy from a legend, in which one can manipulate fact to speak the truth. William Bloom learns this in his quest for fact, ultimately arriving at the truth of his father’s storytelling; Edward made them for him. Jenny says to Will “you are real to your father”, and this is William’s moment of realization that yes the stories were about Edward, but they were for his son, because above all else Edward Bloom wanted to show his son who he honestly was. Whenever you tell a story, even if it is not your own, you speak it with your own tongue, and therefore your own influence; the story becomes bound to your words, your opinion, and your will. This is the part, and a crucial one, of storytelling which I wanted to save for last; you. A story can speak the truth, a story can be full of values, and a story can preserve a legacy, but not without you the reader, the speaker, the storyteller. In the words of William Bloom, “A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal.” The lessons I have learned, and now told you, came from Edward Bloom, the man, the story, the immo

Eliza said...

Eliza Hazen
1.) What is one of the central themes of the story, and how does it apply to another piece of work we have studied this year? You should reference at least one other text we have studied?
Fear of the unknown is the ultimate death.
But the unknown makes life worth living, because life will kill you either way. Life is less terrifying once you know what is going to happen but it also takes the spontaneity out of it which is vital. The father Edward Bloom, blossoms throughout life because he knows his ending, he knows his conclusion. This is a luxury that few experience and of the few even less takes advantage of. Bu Edward Bloom has both of these which make a perfect combination for an inhuman life, which is not concerned with death. Edward’s only fear is dying before his son lives. He tries desperately to connect to him and share with him the stories that set him free, but Will is a different story himself and therefore it will take a different antidote to release him from the trapped life he is living in spite of his dad. Singing set Toby free and now he has the knowing, stories set Edward free but the knowing came first. Because Ed knew before his trail to freedom took a different turn, he grieved for himself when he first found out, it scared him. But he moved on beyond himself and ran down the trail of his freedom. Within the five stages of grief acceptance is key. Mr. Bloom has already grieved and denied and been angered with his fate. In the woods with the witch they were terrified because of the creepy woods but also because of the powerful witch, she basically dictated their lives and controlled in what manner they live. Within This Boy’s Life Toby Wolff has no idea who he is. He catches glimpses but ultimately lives in confusion. He lives in his own shadow. If Toby knew who he was and how he was going to turn out then he would be a very different adult. We learned that Toby misbehaved because he lacked guidance, love and direction. In Big Fish Edward has found his direction and knows where he is going but Will, his only son, is lacking the knowing. When Will was little Ed was gone all the time, even from the beginning. Will Bloom had no way to relate to his father because they were living on different levels. Toby and his world were living on different levels also. Will and Toby were both desperately looking for father figures. Will didn’t have one because his father was so excited about living his free, worriless life, but it was only centered around himself. Tobias didn’t have a father figure because he was living in the shadow of a lost mother who attracted the wrong kind of person, he had no control. When Ed found Sandra, he was saved even though he was already immoral. Sandra showed him the way to take advantage on a free life and they lived to the fullest even if Ed wasn’t always the best father. Josephine and Edward are essentially the same person, one tells stories with words and the other with pictures. They have seen and heard the unknown and recognize it and accept it; Will is on his way and he will understand that the story he is denying himself of is the truth.