Please place your group motif responses here:
These responses should do/address the following:
-How/why are the motifs important--what are the scenes within the film where these motifs are established and accentuated. You should also state what characters help establish these motifs.
-It is your job to 'decode' these motifs and talk about how they are symbolically important and articulate how they drive the narrative of the film forward.
-Most importantly, these responses should adhere to the rules of good writing--more the point: be specific, be clear, and make sure that you are aptly articulating the importance of these motifs in strong written responses.
This is a challenge but you are ready to meet them.
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Motifs help show and give meaning to symbols, which are what creates the stories depth of thought and significance. When Ed was a young boy, the witch with the glass eye showing one’s death, closed the door on him. The next scene, Ed’s wife opens it for Will and Josephine to visit and see his ill father, her father-in-law, on his death bed. After Will visits with him, he leaves and shuts the door because he was irritated that his father never told the truth. – The witch closes the door when Ed wants to see the eye and his death, and then Sandra opens it for Josephine and Will to see the dying Edward. The witch has a prominent role decoding the motif of doors. When the witch, Jenny, was eight, she didn’t want to close the door metaphorically, when Ed was leaving Spector for the road to his old town. Jenny was more than willing to open it when he returns, the time he was supposed to, and then also tell his son, Will, the truth about his father, who she thought was a great man. The motifs help the progression of the film and its ideas. They add importance to the symbols, which then also help depict the themes of the story. Many doors have been shut in Big Fish, but soon thereafter, a new one opens, allowing for a character to understand what they did not know before.
The motif of shoes relating to Edward Bloom in Big Fish goes along with cars and roads. Cars, shoes, and roads represent traveling and freedom. When the Jennifer Hill, the little girl, takes his shoes she means to make the town of Specter his final destination. But Edward is not ready to be done with his extraordinary life and leaves. At the end of the movie when William Bloom, Edwards’s son, is taking him to the river his shoes are taken and thrown up on a wire again. This time he doesn’t protest because he is done with his life and the river will be his final destination and he has no more need of them. He has lived his life and is dying and won’t need any shoes as a fish in the river. Although he has no shoes, just like before this will not prevent him from having freedom and the ability to travel. When he dies in the river he turns into a big fish, which can swim where ever it wants to.
Motifs are doorways into literature. They help to reveal the symbols and themes of a book/movie, which ultimately will elicit a deeper meaning. Motifs are able to execute this because of their similarity to themes and symbols. Since motifs can be a recurring object, you could mistake one for a symbol later in the piece. In addition they are a repetitive concept. These concepts can later assist in the discovering of a much bigger theme or picture.
Doors are a significant motif of the movie Big Fish. It played a key role in establishing the conflict of the film. The conflict between Edward and death. The doors showed up when Edward went looking for the witch of Ashton. Immediately, the witch opens her door. She uncovers her eye and reveals to Edward his death. This is extremely significant because now he has to battle with death as he knows it, throughout his life. Instantly after the scene, Sandra opens the door to their house and tells them that Edward is dying. So these doors, show his death in different ways.
The character of Edward Bloom, seems complex at the beginning. Yet through motifs the viewer is able to look past the obvious and into the complexity of the plot and most importantly the symbolism. At certain times the viewer is able to see more clearly certain accentuated motifs that help move the story along while giving it meaning. For example the ring and water continuously show up in the movie. These being the more noticeable motifs connect the stories of Edward Bloom to him telling the stories in real life. The water also connects him to the uncatchable fish which brings you to another motif of not being able to catch the giant catfish. Another example of water is when Edward is near the end of his life laying in the bath tub of water and his wife says “she will never dry out”. Before this Edward was laying in the bath underneath the water just how he lays as he is being put into the river where all his friends are waving goodbye. Although all the motifs are different they connect somehow to one another to give more meaning to the symbolism and story.
The motif of a door shows up throughout the movie over and over. Many times doors are knocked on and people answer. Each door leads to some place new. In his stories, Ed is looking for his place in the world. He first is forced to leave Ashton because it is too small for him. Ed had fulfilled every opportunity Ashton has to offer. He continues his journey and takes the road less traveled. He stumbles upon Spectre. Spectre is a beautiful town and presents him with the opportunity to settle down and live out his life. However, rather than walking through the door, he goes around. He is not looking to settle down, he wants to progress as far as he can go. As Ed progresses on his journey, he walks through many doors of opportunity and walks around others. All these doors lead down to another door and then another. Finally, one of the last doors Ed walks through is the door to his life with Sandra. This door is the second to last door for Ed. He settles down with his wife and stops progressing. At the end, when William releases him into the river, he passes through is final door. The door to immortality. He lives forever on as the really Big Fish.
Motifs are multiple objects recurring in a movie. In Big Fish, one of the motifs is doors. Doors are an opening or closing of a window to simply show that the scene has ended or is revealing a deeper meaning. Every new door that opens opens up a new opportunity for an idea to happen. The same goes for closing doors, it says that this is over and might not come up again. In Big Fish every time a new door is open or closed we are brought to a new time, location, and idea. Some doors lead up to others or are connected in some way. The doors in Big Fish offer us an opportunity to look deeper into the movie and help us understand what new idea is being open or closed.
Don Brice:
Don Brice is Edward Bloom’s childhood acquaintance from Ashton, Alabama who always comes second best to Edward in school, sports, and to the love of their life Sandra. In the movie Don was always was shown in the background, when Ed scored the winning points for the basket ball game, when Ed was given the key to the city, and when Don was on the bench when Ed hit a home run for his baseball team. Don is a jealous character who displays hatred towards Edward whenever he has success. Ed left his small hometown and went to the big city to peruse a bigger life for him while Don stayed in the shadows of Ed’s accomplishments. Also when Don finally had something working out for him Ed interfered. Don planned to marry Sandra and Ed decided one day at the circus that she was the love of his life and that he was going to marry. Three years he found her and discovered that she was planning to marry his childhood friend. Don felt threatened by him and beat him up to show his affection towards Sandra. It was out of pure hatred and jealousy towards Ed, because Don knew that he was a better man. Don thought that if he won the fight against Ed, Sandra would choose him as her love, but once again he was out shined by Ed. Don Brice died an unaccomplished and depressing man as he read porn on the toilet; he died as the envious childhood acquaintance of Edward Bloom. Edward was a always “a very big fish,” and Don, well, he was just a fish.
Don Brice:
Don Brice is Edward Bloom’s childhood acquaintance from Ashton, Alabama who always comes second best to Edward in school, sports, and to the love of their life Sandra. In the movie Don was always was shown in the background, when Ed scored the winning points for the basket ball game, when Ed was given the key to the city, and when Don was on the bench when Ed hit a home run for his baseball team. Don is a jealous character who displays hatred towards Edward whenever he has success. Ed left his small hometown and went to the big city to peruse a bigger life for him while Don stayed in the shadows of Ed’s accomplishments. Also when Don finally had something working out for him Ed interfered. Don planned to marry Sandra and Ed decided one day at the circus that she was the love of his life and that he was going to marry. Three years he found her and discovered that she was planning to marry his childhood friend. Don felt threatened by him and beat him up to show his affection towards Sandra. It was out of pure hatred and jealousy towards Ed, because Don knew that he was a better man. Don thought that if he won the fight against Ed, Sandra would choose him as her love, but once again he was out shined by Ed. Don Brice died an unaccomplished and depressing man as he read porn on the toilet; he died as the envious childhood acquaintance of Edward Bloom. Edward was a always “a very big fish,” and Don, well, he was just a fish.
The ring is a significant motif in the movie Big Fish. It helped to bring out one of the most important symbols of the movie. This symbol is fish. The role of the ring takes place at the very beginning of the story. Edward goes fishing for the uncatchable catfish in the river. He has a revelation and discovers that gold is the bait for catching the fish. Instantly when the ring hits the water, the fish jumps out and takes it. This scene is connected to another in his quest through Spectre. While perusing the landscape, Edward sees a lady in the river about to be attacked by a snake. He swim’s in to try and save her but it turns out the snake was a branch. By this time, the lady has swam away. Later a girl comes to explain that the Lady he saw was an uncatchable fish, and that it looks different to everybody. The overall scope of the motif comes together when William tells the story of his death. When William carries his dad to the river, Sandra is awaiting his entry. Edward takes out the ring and gives it to Sandra. Edward then turns into the Big Fish. The ring symbolizes Sandra. The uncatchable fish and was caught because of the ring and Edward was ‘caught’ because of Sandra.
The key was given to Edward Bloom by the people of his town, so he can open it when he returns from Spector. He loses this key when he leaves Spector, and finds it when he comes back. The key allows Ed to transition seamlessly to his life in Spector and return to his destination of helping the people and town. Ed helps show how the key is a vital role to life. Both times Ed arrives to Spector, he has the key the key to Ashton, AL with him, which makes him realize even though Spector is a safe, soft place, he is not truly destined to stay there. He has his old life and girl, Sandra, at home waiting for him. With the key, Ed will always still be a part of life in Spector, his life in the circus business, and his life in Ashton, which was noticeable when everyone arrived to say goodbye to Ed before he became an immortal story.
A start--
Water is what enables Ed to tell his stories; it gives him the strength for them to be heard. Without water, there would be no such fibs of catching the uncatchable fish and being the very big fish. When Ed is in the stage of dying he is fully submerged in his bathtub. He said he is drying out; he wants to be able to dry out in water. The picture of a river above his bed indicates this is where he goes to sleep as one person and wakes up as a different person on the exterior. When he is seriously dying, Ed wants to be brought to the river, to be left in water, his bed, where he will wake up and become who he always has been, just having a different appearance.
We are introduced to the witch's eye right from the beginning of the movie. It is said that if you look into her eye you will see how you die. Of course we never really know what it is Edward Bloom saw when he looked upon that glass eye. Since glass causes reflections, what Edward saw in that eye was probably reflected off of his own. Eyes are like a pathway to the soul. Sometimes by just taking one look at someone you can tell what they're thinking or feeling. The witch's eye allowed us to look upon things almost like a door which is probably why, in the movie, the next scene was an opening door. As I said before the glass eye acted as pathway, so when you looked upon it maybe you were seeing things that you controlled. Everyone controls their own fate, and sometimes fear pays a major role in that. Like Edward said in the movie, sometimes you just can't let fear control you, and road never to back down, and that the road less traveled is usually the most rewarding. So since the eye is a motif in the story, and motifs help to build strong symbols. maybe the symbol it is supporting here is fear. Or maybe it's just life and destiny.
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