Big Fish: Full Book Analysis

In some ways, Big Fish resembles a biography: the novel covers Edward’s life from his birth to his reincarnation, interrupted by and interspersed with four “takes” on his death as told by his son, Will. Unlike a traditional biography, however, Big Fish is a circular tale with events told out of order. The event that sets this conflict in motion is the birth of Will, but this doesn’t happen chronologically until midway through the book. The prologue introduces the father-son relationship by describing an event that happens much later, at the end of the story. Big Fish is in some ways a circular tale, in which a father becomes son-like, and a son becomes father-like. When Will carries Edward in a blanket to the river in the last scene, it reminds readers of a father carrying a newborn child.

While the novel is centered on Edward, Will is the teller of these stories. Most of the chapters are told from Will’s point of view, even when he doesn’t appear in them at all. For example, in “In Which He Speaks to Animals,” Will is not yet even born, but the chapter begins with the words “My father.” The pronoun “me” puts Will squarely in the tale, the future son who is repeating a story told by his father, who repeats stories told by his father. Ultimately, readers learn more about Will than we do about Edward, for it is Will who chooses which tales to share, and it is Will who tints each story to serve a particular purpose: to render his father immortal.

Edward, as the center and subject of the novel’s stories, is clearly its protagonist, but identifying antagonists is more complicated. Will—Edward’s son and the novel’s narrator—pushes against his father’s stories, but is not exactly an antagonist. Readers may consider Don Price, the man Edward battles over Sandra, as the antagonist. However, Don is a static character who never appears again in the book, making this conflict a minor one. There are numerous stories within the larger story, many of which have individual conflicts and antagonists, such as Edward fighting the Helldog and Karl, the giant, who threatens an entire town. Even Jenny Hill becomes a kind of antagonist when she becomes “kind of scary” and Edward can no longer connect with her.

The relationship between father and son is central to the novel, and the conflict between them emerges as the novel’s main conflict. The novel asks this question: Will this son ever reconcile his relationship with his fantastic, larger-than-life father? And if he does, how will it happen?

While the main conflict is between Edward and Will as individuals, it is also between the historical past and Edward’s fantastic memories and stories, between truth and fiction. Will, with his skepticism and questions, represents truth. His father, with his fantasies and jokes, represents fiction. Another way to think of the conflict is between life and death. Stories tell about and represent life, and not telling stories, especially of those who have passed, represents true death.

The climax that resolves these conflicts appears on the novel’s very last page: Edward’s transformation. That transformation is made possible by Will, taking his father out to the river and watching with surprise as his father jumps into the water and becomes a fish. Seeing this come to pass gives Will clarity and a measure of peace. Will does fulfill his quest for understanding and reconciliation in his final journey with Edward.

In this novel, life—and the fantasy of stories—prevails, as Edward defies death, turns into an enormous fish, and remains in the world through all the stories still being told about him. Readers can think back a the end to Edward’s idea that people are not supposed to believe something, exactly, but rather believe in it. The ending may be unbelievable, but readers can still believe in it as the narrative reaches its fantastic climax. It may be difficult to believe that the cancer-ridden Edward does not die, but this is what Wallace asks readers to consider possible. More symbolically, Edward lives on through the stories people tell about him – and through the novel itself. As long as people read Big Fish and continue to hear and love the tales, Edward Bloom is alive and swimming.

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