Question

Edward Bloom’s son is candid about the fact that he is an absent father, and yet, in some ways, as the narrator of Big Fish, he memorializes him as a great hero. Consider this choice from a psychological perspective in an analysis of this novel. Write an MLA documented essay that considers the themes of grief and mourning in the novel Big Fish. For this assignment, research the psychological impact of the death of a parent, close friend, or relative. Use at least two scholarly resources from Chattanooga State’s library (print books, ebooks, or databases) to provide outside evidence for your argument.

Answer 1

Edward and Will had a great relationship during Will’s childhood. Over the years, their relationship cooled. Edward is known for telling stories about amazing feats involving giants, witches, werewolves, etc. Will loved these stories when he was a child, but when he grew up, he realized they weren’t real. After that, he wants more than anything to know the truth about his father. He can’t accept that his father won’t stick to the facts when he tells stories. Will tries to convince his father to tell him the truth, but Edward is very proud of his stories. It’s something that he doesn’t want to change, not even for his son.

The reason why there are more absence fathers than ever are various. Divorce, for example, it means that most children live with their mother and see their father significantly less that was one of the factors causing the absence of fatherhood. Meanwhile other explanations of the absence of fatherhood is death, followed by fathers working as labor force, many fathers work over 50-70 hours per week or spend lengths of time on business trips. According to McLanahan, Tach and Schneider (2013, 399) these are factor causing the absence of fatherhood: Education, Mental Health, Labor Force, Searching for Identity the last, Family Formation and Stability.

In the novel, the factor of the absence of fatherhood is because of “men go to work” as labor because father as “breadwinner” and financial support for their family. Being a father is important to men. It fulfills part of their lives. Men must work constantly to keep this masculine control and dominance in place and the place of subordinated men is rendered ambiguous in this account. In this situation, Edward Bloom is not willing to accept the easy way out by making excuses for himself in terms of the need to build up his career and provide financial support for his growing family. He knows he had missed much in his children's growing up years, and that he cannot turn the clock back in order to regain the considerable quality time he had lost. This painful realization leads to a decision to make a substantive change his life. Placing the ideal of the hero into a contemporary framework meant, among other things, that men were always to be the breadwinner for the family. A man’s role is that of breadwinner. This can be proved as follows: …… He wasn’t there very often during the week, because he was on the road, selling, following money—working. (Big Fish, 124)

Throughout the novel the reader is involved in the relationship with Edward and his son, William, have together. William takes this as his chance to finally get to know the mystery of who his father really is as a person and what he endured in his life. The relationship between Edward and William aids in displaying the character archetype of 'Father-Son Conflict' and then William is finally learning how he will be able to get to bottom of the truth and find a way of truly understanding his father.