09-09-10

Today in class, we watched the first part of the Tim Burton film "Big Fish" and tried to extrapolate possible allusions and archetypes within the story. Of course, the most evident archetype presented in the film is the fish itself, symbolizing creation and life. Further evidence about this was given by the character Edward Bloom's speech at the beginning, when he talks about how he really "caught" the fish when his son, Will, was born. This most likely means that, since the fish stands for life, it was only until the birth of his son did he really see what life was about.
Another idea that could be tied in with the archetype of the fish is Edward's marriage to his wife. Since women are essentially the sources of life (giving birth), his story about catching the uncatchable fish with his ring ties into the concept of marriage and the measures one has to make to achieve it. This idea is also somewhat proven when Edward himself says "Sometimes, the only way to catch an uncatchable woman is to offer her a wedding ring," relating to the fish story. Coincidentally, the concept of "catching fish" is also colloquially used to mean "getting into a relationship with a girl."
I chose to discuss mainly this archetype because it is really the most evident one and the idea most emphasized by the movie. Also, it can be tied into so many different things in life that it dispelled my initial skepticism on the idea of a fish being an archetype.
This has been the first blog of the Extrapolators. 
We <3 Elliott.


- El Coronel