Big Fish

Big Fish

by

Daniel Wallace

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Big Fish makes teaching easy.
William Bloom, Edward’s son, is the story’s narrator and one its two protagonists. While coming to terms with Edward’s impending death, William narrates the story of his father’s life as a series of metaphorical adventures that position Edward as a larger-than-life hero. At the beginning of the novel, William feels deeply disconnected from Edward, because Edward spent his life traveling for work and was largely absent from William’s life. To make matters worse, Edward prefers telling fantastical stories or cracking jokes instead of having honest conversations when he is around—even though that kind of openhearted connection is something William craves. As the story draws to a close, however, William realizes that Edward’s absences, stories, and jokes are not distancing mechanisms that Edward uses to keep William at arm’s length, but very real parts of who Edward is as a person. Although William initially finds Edward’s tales and jokes trivial, he eventually realizes that Edward used them as memorable vehicles for delivering messages to his son about the value of courage, resilience, ambition, and the healing power of laughter. In other words, Edward’s constant jokes and outlandish tales were actually evidence of Edward’s love for William. Eventually, William accepts Edward for the flawed—but fascinating—person that he is, and he is able to make peace with his father’s death.

William Bloom Quotes in Big Fish

The Big Fish quotes below are all either spoken by William Bloom or refer to William Bloom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ambition, Courage, and Personal Fulfilment Theme Icon
).
Part 1: In Which He Speaks to Animals Quotes

My father had a way with animals, everyone said so.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: His Great Promise Quotes

Edward Bloom used his time wisely, reading. He read almost every book there was in Ashland. A thousand books—some say ten thousand. History, Art, Philosophy. Horatio Alger. It didn’t matter. He read them all. Even the telephone book.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: My Father’s Death: Take 1 Quotes

An itinerant dad, home for him was a stop on his way somewhere else, working toward a goal that was unclear. […] It was as though he lived in a state of constant aspiration: getting there, wherever it was, wasn’t the important thing: it was the battle, and the battle after that, and the war was never ending.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

At home, the magic of his absence yielded to the ordinariness of his presence. He drank a bit. He didn’t become angry, but frustrated and lost, as though he had fallen into a hole. On those first nights home his eyes were so bright you would swear they glowed in the dark, but then after a few days his eyes became weary. He began to seem out of his element and he suffered for it.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

“Remembering a man’s stories makes him immortal, did you know that?”

Related Characters: Edward Bloom (William’s Father) (speaker), William Bloom
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

“I wanted to be a great man […] I thought it was my destiny. A big fish in a big pond—that’s what I wanted.”

Related Characters: Edward Bloom (William’s Father) (speaker), William Bloom
Related Symbols: Big Fish, Water and Swimming
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: How He Tamed the Giant Quotes

“I don’t want to eat anybody […] I just get so hungry.”

Related Characters: Karl the Giant (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Karl’s Mother
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Day He Left Ashland Quotes

“That’s what this place is all about, Edward. Getting used to things […] This rain, this dampness—it’s a kind of residue. The residue of a dream. Of lots of dreams, actually.”

Related Characters: Willie (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Dog
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

“I—I wouldn’t trust that dog […] I just wouldn’t take the chance, son. He didn’t get you before, but you never know about next time. S’unpredictable. So sit tight.”

Related Characters: Man Even Older Than Willie (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Dog, Willie
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

My father took his chance and ran through the opening and didn’t look back. He ran through the darkness until it became light again, and the world turned green and wonderful […] When the road ended he stopped and breathed and found that Dog was right behind him, tongue lolling, and when he reached my father, he rubbed his warm body down against his legs.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Dog
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

And the sun set, and the moon rose, and the water in the lake began to gently ripple, and in the white light of the moon then he saw the girl, her head breaking the surface a good ways out, the water flowing through her hair and back into the lake, and she was smiling.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Dog, River Girl
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name, Water and Swimming, Big Fish
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Entering a New World Quotes

“At the time, of course, dying in the dark of that strange wood, he was far from grateful. But by morning he was well rested, and, though bleeding still from various parts of his body, he began walking, no longer knowing or caring where he was going, but just walking, forward, onward, ready for whatever Life and Fate chose to hurl at him next […].”

Related Characters: Jasper “Buddy” Barron (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Old Lady and the Eye Quotes

And as the old lady drew near they could see that it was here indeed, not in the box but back in the old lady’s head. […] And though they would have turned away they couldn’t, and as she looked at each of them, each of them in turn stared deeply into the old lady’s eye, and it was said that within the eye each of them could see their future.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Don Price (Gang Leader) , Old Lady
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: My Father’s Death: Take 2 Quotes

“But a joke […] It’s funny for a minute or two and that’s it. You’re left with nothing. Even if you changed your mind every other day I’d rather—I wished you’d shared some of these things with me. Even your doubts would have been better than a constant stream of jokes.”

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Fight Quotes

Simply by being who he was—no more, no less—my father was winning my mother’s heart.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:

They fell into a kiss.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother) , Don Price (Gang Leader)
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: His Three Labors Quotes

My father cleaned this mess up every morning and every evening. He did it until the cages shone, until you could have eaten a meal off the surface of the floor, so spotless and clean had he left it.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

“This is the girdle I’ve been waiting for all my life! And to think that you—you—I’ve been so unfair! Can you ever forgive me?”

Related Characters: Muriel Rainwater (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:

However, the big black Helldog was aggravated. Edward had rudely come between him and a meal.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother) , Jennifer Morgan
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: My Father’s Death: Take 3 Quotes

“You’re not necessarily supposed to believe it […] You’re just supposed to believe in it. It’s like—a metaphor.”

Related Characters: Edward Bloom (William’s Father) (speaker), William Bloom
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: How He Saw Me Quotes

While my mother took care of the day-to-day things, he brought vision to the task. He made a list of the virtues he possessed and wanted to pass on to me: perseverance, ambition, personality, optimism, strength, intelligence, imagination.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 122
Explanation and Analysis:

The very idea of coming home at the same time every single day made him nauseated. Regardless of how much he loved his wife, his son, he could only stand so much love. […] He needed a break.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: His Greatest Power Quotes

But he liked to leave me laughing. This is how he wanted to remember me, and how he wanted to be remembered. Of all his greatest powers, this was perhaps his most extraordinary: at any time, at the drop of a hat, he could really break me up.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: In Which He Has a Dream Quotes

He made me laugh.

Related Characters: Old Man (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: In Which He Buys a Town, and More Quotes

The swamp stops growing after a certain point, when the house is surrounded on all sides by yards of deep, dark, mossy water. And my father returns, finally, and sees what has happened, but by this time the swamp is too deep, the house too far away, and though he sees her glowing there he can’t have her, and so he has to come back to us.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother) , Jenny Hill
Related Symbols: The Swamp
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: My Father’s Death: Take 4 Quotes

There’s this man, and he’s a poor man, but he needs a suit, and—

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Big Fish Quotes

And that’s when I discovered that my father hadn’t been dying after all. He was just changing, transforming himself into something new and different to carry his life forward in. All this time, my father was becoming a fish.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Related Symbols: Big Fish, Water and Swimming
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Big Fish LitChart as a printable PDF.
Big Fish PDF

William Bloom Quotes in Big Fish

The Big Fish quotes below are all either spoken by William Bloom or refer to William Bloom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ambition, Courage, and Personal Fulfilment Theme Icon
).
Part 1: In Which He Speaks to Animals Quotes

My father had a way with animals, everyone said so.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: His Great Promise Quotes

Edward Bloom used his time wisely, reading. He read almost every book there was in Ashland. A thousand books—some say ten thousand. History, Art, Philosophy. Horatio Alger. It didn’t matter. He read them all. Even the telephone book.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: My Father’s Death: Take 1 Quotes

An itinerant dad, home for him was a stop on his way somewhere else, working toward a goal that was unclear. […] It was as though he lived in a state of constant aspiration: getting there, wherever it was, wasn’t the important thing: it was the battle, and the battle after that, and the war was never ending.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

At home, the magic of his absence yielded to the ordinariness of his presence. He drank a bit. He didn’t become angry, but frustrated and lost, as though he had fallen into a hole. On those first nights home his eyes were so bright you would swear they glowed in the dark, but then after a few days his eyes became weary. He began to seem out of his element and he suffered for it.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

“Remembering a man’s stories makes him immortal, did you know that?”

Related Characters: Edward Bloom (William’s Father) (speaker), William Bloom
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

“I wanted to be a great man […] I thought it was my destiny. A big fish in a big pond—that’s what I wanted.”

Related Characters: Edward Bloom (William’s Father) (speaker), William Bloom
Related Symbols: Big Fish, Water and Swimming
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: How He Tamed the Giant Quotes

“I don’t want to eat anybody […] I just get so hungry.”

Related Characters: Karl the Giant (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Karl’s Mother
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Day He Left Ashland Quotes

“That’s what this place is all about, Edward. Getting used to things […] This rain, this dampness—it’s a kind of residue. The residue of a dream. Of lots of dreams, actually.”

Related Characters: Willie (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Dog
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

“I—I wouldn’t trust that dog […] I just wouldn’t take the chance, son. He didn’t get you before, but you never know about next time. S’unpredictable. So sit tight.”

Related Characters: Man Even Older Than Willie (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Dog, Willie
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

My father took his chance and ran through the opening and didn’t look back. He ran through the darkness until it became light again, and the world turned green and wonderful […] When the road ended he stopped and breathed and found that Dog was right behind him, tongue lolling, and when he reached my father, he rubbed his warm body down against his legs.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Dog
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

And the sun set, and the moon rose, and the water in the lake began to gently ripple, and in the white light of the moon then he saw the girl, her head breaking the surface a good ways out, the water flowing through her hair and back into the lake, and she was smiling.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Dog, River Girl
Related Symbols: The Place That Had No Name, Water and Swimming, Big Fish
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Entering a New World Quotes

“At the time, of course, dying in the dark of that strange wood, he was far from grateful. But by morning he was well rested, and, though bleeding still from various parts of his body, he began walking, no longer knowing or caring where he was going, but just walking, forward, onward, ready for whatever Life and Fate chose to hurl at him next […].”

Related Characters: Jasper “Buddy” Barron (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Old Lady and the Eye Quotes

And as the old lady drew near they could see that it was here indeed, not in the box but back in the old lady’s head. […] And though they would have turned away they couldn’t, and as she looked at each of them, each of them in turn stared deeply into the old lady’s eye, and it was said that within the eye each of them could see their future.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Don Price (Gang Leader) , Old Lady
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: My Father’s Death: Take 2 Quotes

“But a joke […] It’s funny for a minute or two and that’s it. You’re left with nothing. Even if you changed your mind every other day I’d rather—I wished you’d shared some of these things with me. Even your doubts would have been better than a constant stream of jokes.”

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Fight Quotes

Simply by being who he was—no more, no less—my father was winning my mother’s heart.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:

They fell into a kiss.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother) , Don Price (Gang Leader)
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: His Three Labors Quotes

My father cleaned this mess up every morning and every evening. He did it until the cages shone, until you could have eaten a meal off the surface of the floor, so spotless and clean had he left it.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

“This is the girdle I’ve been waiting for all my life! And to think that you—you—I’ve been so unfair! Can you ever forgive me?”

Related Characters: Muriel Rainwater (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:

However, the big black Helldog was aggravated. Edward had rudely come between him and a meal.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother) , Jennifer Morgan
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: My Father’s Death: Take 3 Quotes

“You’re not necessarily supposed to believe it […] You’re just supposed to believe in it. It’s like—a metaphor.”

Related Characters: Edward Bloom (William’s Father) (speaker), William Bloom
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: How He Saw Me Quotes

While my mother took care of the day-to-day things, he brought vision to the task. He made a list of the virtues he possessed and wanted to pass on to me: perseverance, ambition, personality, optimism, strength, intelligence, imagination.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 122
Explanation and Analysis:

The very idea of coming home at the same time every single day made him nauseated. Regardless of how much he loved his wife, his son, he could only stand so much love. […] He needed a break.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: His Greatest Power Quotes

But he liked to leave me laughing. This is how he wanted to remember me, and how he wanted to be remembered. Of all his greatest powers, this was perhaps his most extraordinary: at any time, at the drop of a hat, he could really break me up.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: In Which He Has a Dream Quotes

He made me laugh.

Related Characters: Old Man (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), William Bloom, Sandra (William’s Mother)
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: In Which He Buys a Town, and More Quotes

The swamp stops growing after a certain point, when the house is surrounded on all sides by yards of deep, dark, mossy water. And my father returns, finally, and sees what has happened, but by this time the swamp is too deep, the house too far away, and though he sees her glowing there he can’t have her, and so he has to come back to us.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father), Sandra (William’s Mother) , Jenny Hill
Related Symbols: The Swamp
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: My Father’s Death: Take 4 Quotes

There’s this man, and he’s a poor man, but he needs a suit, and—

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Big Fish Quotes

And that’s when I discovered that my father hadn’t been dying after all. He was just changing, transforming himself into something new and different to carry his life forward in. All this time, my father was becoming a fish.

Related Characters: William Bloom (speaker), Edward Bloom (William’s Father)
Related Symbols: Big Fish, Water and Swimming
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis: