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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blueback, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, Belonging, and Conservation
Family and Love
Greed and Environmental Destruction
The Ocean and Life’s Mysteries
Time, Change, and Continuity
Summary
Analysis
Abel spends the whole next day at school thinking about Blueback. He tries to imagine what such an old fish might have seen in his lifetime so far. He wonders if Blueback remembers all the changes in the reef that must have taken place over the years. Abel thinks fish are mysterious because they keep their thoughts and memories secret from humans. Abel gets in trouble with his teacher for daydreaming in class, but he still can’t stop wondering about Blueback.
Abel is filled with wonder about the sea, a whole world that he can’t experience in the same way fish can. He’s especially intrigued by Blueback’s mind, the contents of which are hidden from Abel since fish can’t communicate to people through human language. Abel wishes he could have greater insight into Blueback, exhibiting strong curiosity and a desire to discover the unknown.
Themes
After school, Abel and his mother take the boat out to see Blueback. The fish seems to have been waiting for them to come back. As Abel and his mother dive into the water, Blueback watches and approaches Abel. Eventually, Abel realizes he can let Blueback push him through the water. At first, Blueback’s strength is frightening, but Abel and Blueback play together “safely in silence,” as “familiar as old friends.”
Blueback is intelligent. He remembers Abel and his mother, and he transitions from being cautious to acting playful when he recognizes them. Although Blueback is a fish and can’t communicate with words, he and Abel connect on a deeper level. That Abel befriends Blueback so quickly showcases that humans can form close bonds of friendship with animals, not just with other people.
Themes
Later, while doing his homework, Abel resolves to become an expert on fish so he can learn what fish think. Then he looks at a photograph of his father. Abel doesn’t remember his father, who died when Abel was two years old, but Longboat Bay itself is like a memory of him. To Abel, his mother is a memory of his father, too. She keeps a shrine to Abel’s father in a peppermint tree near the orchard. Abel’s mother often stays by the tree for hours, remembering her husband.
At a young age, Abel decides to try to uncover some of the mysteries of the sea. His deep curiosity and new friendship with Blueback motivate him to set this goal for himself. As Abel also reflects on his father, he reveals that his father isn’t totally gone, even in death. The peppermint tree symbolizes that Abel and his mother are still connected to Abel’s father, whose memory lives on in Longboat Bay.
Themes
In life, Abel’s father was a pearl diver, but one year he was killed by a tiger shark and his body was never found. Just like Abel wishes he could know what fish think, he also wishes he could know what the dead think. To Abel, fish and the dead are equally mysterious. They both tie “his mind up in knots” and make him curious to discover their secrets.
Abel’s father’s death is a reminder that the sea can be a dangerous place. More importantly, Abel’s father’s death makes Abel curious about the dead and the mysteries that await beyond life. Interestingly, Abel relates the mysteries of life and death to the mysteries of fish and the ocean. Fish and Abel’s father both exist just outside of Abel’s understanding, heightening Abel’s parallel desires to know more about them.
Themes
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