“Fishing was our antidote to keep from falling into a blackness Tommy knew was there gnawing at his bones like an animal. A gravity to all his many failures.”<\/p>\n
In this story, the narrator’s son has died from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. To them, fishing was an antidote to keep the “demons” away and to take their minds off of the sickness. The narrator chooses the word antidote because it appears to be a cure. While many medical antidotes cure sicknesses, this is more of a temporary solution for the disease for Tommy Nothing Fancy. The relief from the discomfort from the disease is found by Tommy and his father, the narrator, through fishing. Fishing is their relief, and they keep catching fish\u00a0until one releases itself. The fish’s release of itself and when Tommy can no longer catch the fish will symbolize his death. He’s caught on the line of life right now, and when he’s finally free from the line, he will be free from the “demons” for good, being off the hook. Blackness is the color choice of the author because it often symbolizes a helpless abyss from which one cannot see the beginning or the end. This is Tommy’s illness. It was unclear that he had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (no clear beginning), and it’s unknown how long he could survive with the disease (no clear end), and so he’s living in darkness\/blackness where nothing can be seen apart from the surrounding pain. This seemingly endless pain and blackness is said to gnaw at his bones like an animal. When I think of gnawing, I think of a savage scavenging every last piece of meat off of its food until \u00a0nothing’s left but the hard and destroyed bone. By the end of his life, Tommy will be destroyed mentally, as the bone appears physically, as well as having a degraded brain capacity due to the seizures associated with FAS. Furthermore, the animal represents the “demons” that haunt his mind and cause him pain and discomfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Fishing was our antidote to keep from falling into a blackness Tommy knew was there gnawing at his bones like an animal. A gravity to all his many failures.” In this story, the narrator’s son has died from Fetal Alcohol … Continue reading