The swamp that pools around Jenny Hill’s house as she waits unhappily for her lover, Edward, to visit her, symbolizes the deep unhappiness and stagnation that awaits all those who spend their life pining over or waiting for something rather than actually living. Jenny is deeply in love with Edward, but she eventually becomes empty and bitter because Edward only visits sporadically, in between working and spending time at home with his family. Jenny thus spends most of her time at the window, waiting for Edward to return, and her life grows stagnant. Author Daniel Wallace symbolizes Jenny’s inertia with the imagery of a swamp growing around her home, locking her in place, and making her emotionally inaccessible to others, Edward included, because she spends her life passively waiting instead of actively carving out a satisfying life for herself.
The Swamp Quotes in Big Fish
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.
The Swamp Symbol Timeline in Big Fish
