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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Big Fish, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition, Courage, and Personal Fulfilment
Truth, Myth, and Immortality
Love, Flaws, and Acceptance
The Redemptive Power of Laughter
Summary
Analysis
William Bloom is on a car trip with his father, Edward Bloom, shortly before the end of his “father’s life as a man.” They stop by a river and his father wades in to the water barefoot, smiling in a way that William hasn’t seen for a while. His father starts telling William what this reminds him of but stops to think. William wonders which adventure his father will tell him about. But his father simply says the river reminds him of being a boy. William thinks of his father both old and young, in his last and earliest moments of his life, and the thoughts converge, making his father seem a “weird creature” who is both dying and newborn. William’s father becomes a myth.
In this prelude to the story, the reader learns that William Bloom is narrating a story about his father, Edward, and that Edward is a fascinating man who is somewhat elusive to William. Edward loves water, which represents living an abundant, adventurous life. William’s references to his father as a “weird creature” show that he will transform his father from a dying man into an immortal “myth” through the story that’s to follow.
Themes
