Fish As A Hero In Cloudstreet

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Cloudstreet- Fish as a hero


“Hero- Man of superhuman strength, courage or ability, favoured by the gods; later regarded as intermediate between gods and men, and immortal.” (The New Oxford English Dictionary)
By definition of hero in A Glossary of Literary Terms (pg139) a hero is “the chief character of work, of whom our interest centres” and this hero must have one of many factors including conflict concerning “the circumstances that stand between him and the goal he set himself.”

A hero must also be fighting for a worthy cause.

The two definitions demonstrate two sides of a true hero. The dictionary definition defines a character describing the characteristical attributes of a hero, where as the literary terms definition is defining a heroic character by his role in a text. Fish satisfies both definitions of a hero.


Fish linked to God and his innocence;
-Samson (Fish’s real name, and Sam Pickles real name), in bible Samson loses his (hair) to gain something much greater then was possible without this loss, he becomes a hero
-Fish is related to the symbol of Jesus and Jesus being the fisher of man
- Lamb is innocence and Jesus being a shepherd
-Drowns and is ‘cleansed’ (baptismal imagery)
- Retarded at the maturity of a child, therefor maintains innocence throughout the story
-Talks in tongues (wedding and in sleep) understands the pigs language
of tongues
-Jesus is “the water man”(pg119); he gave Fish the opportunity to help his family
-Fish discuss’ his omniscience (pg424)
-Medically fish is not retarded (pg67)
-In his omniscience reveals he has a purpose to help his family “Lester, Rose, Red- I cant stop it for you”
-He has a take and must fulfil this before he ‘returns’ to the water; Fish urges for the water and responds not yet (pg120), (pg146) still yearns for water

Fish’s task to unite the family;
-Fish was the cause for the move to Subiaco and for ...