Blueback: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Abel spends the whole next day at school thinking about Blueback. He tries to imagine what such an old fish might have seen in his lifetime so far. He wonders if Blueback remembers all the changes in the reef that must have taken place over the years. Abel thinks fish are mysterious because they keep their thoughts and memories secret from humans. Abel gets in trouble with his teacher for daydreaming in class, but he still can’t stop wondering about Blueback.

After school, Abel and his mother take the boat out to see Blueback. The fish seems to have been waiting for them to come back. As Abel and his mother dive into the water, Blueback watches and approaches Abel. Eventually, Abel realizes he can let Blueback push him through the water. At first, Blueback’s strength is frightening, but Abel and Blueback play together “safely in silence,” as “familiar as old friends.”

Later, while doing his homework, Abel resolves to become an expert on fish so he can learn what fish think. Then he looks at a photograph of his father. Abel doesn’t remember his father, who died when Abel was two years old, but Longboat Bay itself is like a memory of him. To Abel, his mother is a memory of his father, too. She keeps a shrine to Abel’s father in a peppermint tree near the orchard. Abel’s mother often stays by the tree for hours, remembering her husband.

In life, Abel’s father was a pearl diver, but one year he was killed by a tiger shark and his body was never found. Just like Abel wishes he could know what fish think, he also wishes he could know what the dead think. To Abel, fish and the dead are equally mysterious. They both tie “his mind up in knots” and make him curious to discover their secrets.