Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

In the present, William imagines a second version of Edward's death. Again, Dr. Bennett emerges from the family's guest room and "looks hopelessly" (65) at William and his mother. He tells them that if they want to make any peace with Edward, now is the time to do it. William and his mother share a "once-in-a-lifetime look" (65) with each other as they consider the situation.

His mother goes into the guest room first, with a serene smile, and comes out after a few minutes, wiping away a tear. She hugs Dr. Bennett, then prompts William to go into the room. William enters the dim room. He reflects that the room his father is now dying in was once used by his high school friends when they'd stay the night. Edward smiles at his son. William thinks he looks "happy and sad, tired and spiritually blessed," (67) but also "curdled," (67) with his skin pale and all of his hair gone.

Edward asks William for a glass of water. He brings it to him, and Edward dribbles water down his chin as he drinks. He apologizes, but William brushes him off. Edward clarifies that he's not apologizing for spilling water. William accepts the apology and commends his father for being "a real trooper" (68) in his dying days. William reflects that since Edward started dying, the two of them have switched places, and he's become a kind of father.

Losing the train of conversation, Edward jokes that he'll be leaving the guest room just in time for guests to arrive. He means that his death and funeral will be just the thing that necessitates the guest room's availability. He chose to die in the guest room out of consideration for Edward's mother, whom he didn't want to upset by possibly dying in their shared bed. William wonders what to do now, he thinks about how just before Dr. Bennett told him to say his goodbyes, he'd been swimming the backyard pool, a place Edward "practically lived in" (69) when he was healthier.

The two men stop smiling at each other, and Edward tells William that he's going to miss him. William says the same about his father. He starts to ask him if he believes in Heaven, but then stops himself. Usually people avoid talking about religion with Edward, because he doesn't have anything to say about it, but William goes ahead and asks. Edward says he doesn't know if he can say "one way or the other" (71) if he believes in God, but the question reminds him of a joke. St. Peter asks Jesus to watch the gates of Heaven one day. A man comes up to the gates and Jesus asks him what he's done to enter "the kingdom of Heaven" (71). The man replies that he's led a quiet life as a carpenter, and that his son was the only "remarkable thing" (71) about his life. He explains that his son had an "unusual birth" (72) and "great transformation" (72), later becoming well-known and loved around the world. Jesus hugs the man, saying "Father, father!" (72). The man hugs him back and asks, "Pinocchio?" (72).

William smiles and says he's heard it before. Edward wheezes and chastiseshis son for not stopping him from wasting his last few breaths retelling a joke. William worries that he'll never get a straight answer from his dad, so he asks him again. Finally, Edward admits that he "never felt comfortable" (73) talking about God, or Heaven. William tells his dad that even his doubts about God would have been "better than a constant stream of jokes" (73). This weighs on Edward. He tells William that he'd rather his son have a bunch of jokes than a bunch of doubts.

The air conditioner switches on and stirs up the stench in the room. William can't tell if it's the stench or his father's revelation that turn his stomach. He notices his father has closed his eyes and worries that this is the end, but then Edward says, "I was a good dad" (74). William agrees with him, then asks him one more time whether today he believes in God. Edward seems to be drifting into a deep sleep, but opens his eyes, looks at William and says, "Pinocchio?" (75).

The story flashes back to Auburn, Alabama, again. Edward has fallen in love with Sandra Kay Templeton, "the most beautiful woman" (76) in Auburn, if not Alabama. She has many admirers who write her songs, fight over her, and follow her around, so Edward keeps his distance. He watches her from afar, feeling like "wherever she went, she glowed" (77).

In another of Edward's legends of his youth, it is said that of he moves so fast "he could arrive in a place before setting out to get there" (78). Many try to race him, but none win. He simply takes off his shoes and, before his opponent has a chance to get started, appears at the finish line.

Fed up with watching her from a distance, young Edward decides to talk to Sandra. He starts following her around the school, so he can run into her. One day, he sees her talking to someone familiar. He notices that she's smiling "in a way he'd never seen her smile before," (79) and leans into kiss the young man. He recognizes the young man as Don Price, the leader of the group that stole the old woman's eye.

Edward thinks that, having "defeated" (80) Don once, he can do it again. He approaches Sandra the next day as she's going into the women's restroom and asks her to go out with him on Friday night. She agrees, even though Don Price had asked her to marry him earlier in the day. She hadn't said yes to him because she felt like she should take a few days to think it over, as though she had heard "Edward's hope" (8) that they would be together.

Three weeks after their first date, Edward takes Sandra on a night drive on Piney Mountain. Sandra isn't quite in love with Edward yet, but she sees that she could be, if she thought about it. Edward drives them a few miles into the woods, planning to pull over so they can make out, but, in his rearview mirror, he spots a car's headlights speeding towards them. It's Don Price.

Don speeds up and hits Edward's car's rear fender. Thinking he can outpace him, Edward speeds up, too, but Don matches his pace, and pulls up beside him. Edward feels comfortable driving the windy hills of the road, but he can tell that Don has been drinking. He pulls ahead of Don, then turns the wheel so that he's blocking the road, forcing Don to stop his car.

Though not a fighter by nature, Edward can "defend himself when forced to" (81) do so. He and Don both jump out of their cars and confront each other. Don, a man similar in size to Edward, though stronger, tells Edward that Sandra is his. Edward replies that he "didn't know that she belonged to anybody" (83). Sandra has stayed in the car. Don tells Edward that they're getting married, but Edward asks Don whether Sandra accepted his marriage proposal. Not responding to the question, Don begins threatening Edward with physical violence unless Sandra gets in the car with him. Edward tries to keep the situation calmby telling Don that Sandra won't be getting in the car with him because he's drunk. He offers to drive Sandra down the mountain then let her decide which man she'd prefer to go with. This makes Don laugh. He refuses Edward's offer and charges at him. The two men engage in a brutal fight, but Edward triumphs. He places Don, beaten and limp, into his back seat, and drives him and Sandra down the mountain.

They arrive at Sandra's dorm, and sit in the parked car in silence. After a while, Edward asks her if Don asked her to marry him. She says yes, but explains that she didn't say yes, and that she told Don she'd think about it. Edward asks if she thought about it, and she responds by taking Edward's "bloody hand in her own" (85) and kissing him.

In Edward's version, Sandra's father, Seth Templeton, has "no hair anywhere on his body" (86) and rides a horse "as big as any horse there was" (86). Her mother is bed-riddenand has been for a decade.

Like Edward, Seth Templeton likes to tell stories—in this case, about his daughter. For example, he'd once told Sandra that she "hung the moon," and that the stars were "her wishes" (87). Though he'd crafted this story for Sandra's amusement as a girl, in his old age, he now believes it to be true.

Sandra and Edward marry each other in the Auburn courthouse, "with strangers as witnesses" (87). Afterward, they both worry about how to tell her father about the marriage. They drive out to his farm together to tell him. Sandra introduces Edward to her fatherand tells them to shake hands. Seth asks her why he's doing that, and she replies that it's because Edward is her husband. Seth seems upset for a moment, then bursts into laughter. He invites them into the house for Cokes, then lights a pipe as they sit in the living room together. He asks them what "all this" (88) is about. Edward responds that he loves Sandra and is going to "love her and take care of her for the rest my life" (88).

Unmoved by this statement, Seth asks Edward about his last name, recalling that he rode with a man called Bloom in the cavalry back in 1918. Edward realizes that Seth hasn't "heard a word he said" (89). He compliments Seth on his horse, and this delights Seth. That afternoon, no one speaks of the marriage again, instead letting Seth talk at length about his days in the cavalry and his nuanced views on Christianity.

At dusk, Edward and Sandra get ready to leave the farm. Seth and Edward shake hands, and Seth tells his daughter that it's "not a good day" (90) to see her mother. The couple departs and Seth waves to them from the house, pointing up at the stars "with a child's delight" (90).

After getting married, Edward and Sandra move to Birmingham, Alabama, where word of Edward's "great strength, intelligence, and perseverance had spread" (91). He plans to seek his fortune, but knows he has to "perform many great labors" (91) before he takes his "rightful place" (91).

His "first labor" (91) is working as a veterinarian's assistant. He has to scrub the dog and cat kennels, which are always "nearly filled with feces" (91). He scrubs them "spotless and clean" (92), only to have the next dog inside of it look at Edward "and shit" (92).

Next, he works as a sales clerk in the lingerie department at Smith's, a large store in downtown Birmingham. His male coworkers tease him at first, but eventually, he becomes popular with his female coworkers. Edward also wins "the trust of the women who regularly shop" (92) at Smith's, except for a woman named Muriel Rainwater. A very large, elderly womanwith lots of money, she frequents the lingerie department looking for girdles. She never allows Edward to help her, which Edward sees as a challenge. He makes it "his goal to one day wait" (93) on her.

Edward does this by hiding the next week's shipment of new girdles so only he can bring them to Mrs. Rainwater. She comes in the next day, demanding girdles from the shop girls, who have no idea that the new girdles have arrived. Mrs. Rainwater throws a fit and continues to ignore Edward until he asks her how he can serve her. She finally agrees to let him help, and he shows her to the dressing room, where he's laid out the newest girdle. Putting it on transforms her completely, so that she seems "younger, and sweeter, and certainly a happier woman than before" (95). She apologizes for treating Edward cruelly and lavishes him with praise.

Finally, Edward deals with a wild dog. After being promoted to manager at Smith's, the Blooms move into a "small white house" across from an elementary school. The house only ever belonged to the Calloway family, and most in the neighborhood felt it should have been torn down rather than bought and inhabited by another family. To mitigate this, the Blooms adopt some of the Calloways' habits: taking in stray catsand trimming the azaleas into letters. Their efforts go unnoticed.

One day, a "pack of wild dogs" (97) invades the neighborhood. They terrorize the place, tearing up gardens and trash cans, killing other dogs, and howling all night. The State Bureau of Animal Control comes into the neighborhood and kills all of the dogs, but one. This dog is said to be "crazed, [a] lunatic" (97), with a "human capacity for rage and retribution" (97). When faced with an electric fence one family installs, the dog takes the shock and comes back for more.

Given his way with animals in the past, Edward believes it should have been easy for him to tame the dog and lead him out of the neighborhood. However, "his new life had weakened him" (98) to the point that he couldn't. One night, though, Edwards decides to take a walk by himself. He comes across a three-year-old girl, Jennifer Morgan, who's wandered out into the street with a piece of bread to try to feed the wild dog, dubbed "the Helldog" (98). The Helldog approaches her, intending to eat her, but Edward intercepts and grabs the girl. The dog gives chase and attacks Edward. Still holding the girl, Edward is able to get to the dog's stomach and rip out its "massive beating heart" (99). He saves the girl and covers her eyes as he commits this gruesome act. He returns the girl to her parents and resumes his walk.

In another story, Edward is serving in the military as a sailor on a ship called Neried. The ship is "as big as his hometown' (101), with an even bigger population. Edward feels that, even though he's just a crewmember, the fate of the "world rested on his shoulders" (101). Surrounded by water, Edward feels "secure and at peace" (102).

One day, the ship gets hit by a torpedo and begins to sink. The crew keeps calm and Edward puts on his life belt as they begin to abandon ship. They begin to toss not only life boats, but pieces of wood, benches, and anything else that will float overboard. Some of the men jumping off of the ship misjudge its size and shape, and end up either floating in the water, or being sucked into the ship's propeller blades. Edward takes out Sandra's most recent letter and rereads it before he, too, jumps. He's able to avoid landing in the "sheet of oil" (103) covering most of the water's surface.

Once in the water, he sinks like a stone, and sees, to one side, the ship going down, and, to the other, the legs of his fellow sailors struggling to stay afloat. Even though he should be drowning, Edward finds that he seems to be breathing "through his own body" (104). He somehow spots a young girl underwater, who seems familiar. She beckons to him and he swims after her. He follows her until he swims into a spot where the sunlight has broken through the oil on the water, and he comes up for air. He begins waving to the other sailors, most of whom are trying to stay afloat in the oil-drenched water, and most of those who can see him start swimming towards him. Those who stay behind drown, but Edward and the others survive.

In the present day, William imagines his father's death for the third time. Dr. Bennett comes out of the guest room in which Edward's been staying and begins weeping. When he's finally able to speak, he tells William and Sandra that he's not sure what's going on with Edward, but that he "seems pretty bad off" (107). He tells them to go have a look for themselves.

Sandra, with a look of resolute resignation, squeezes William's hand then heads into the guest room. Dr. Bennett collapses onto a chair and William wonders if he's dead. He's not, though, and as he stares off into space, William imagines that he's thinking Edward would live forever, "as though he were a god" (107). William realizes that, though they've seen him in vulnerable, human situations, this is how they see Edward: as though he were a demigod, sent to Earth to make people's lives better by making them laugh. William hears his father laughing as his mother leaves the guest room, calling him "incorrigible" (108). She cries "tears of frustration" (108) over having to witness Edward dying and "not dying right" (108).

As Dr. Bennett dozes in his chair, William peeks into the guest bedroom. Edward lays in the bed, propped up on pillows. He smiles when he sees William and asks him to come in. William sits in a chair beside the bed and comments that Edward looks like he's feeling better, which Edward confirms. Although William realizes that, no matter how much better he's feeling, it would "take more than a miracle" (109) to stop Edward from dying now. He is in fact, "already a little bit dead" (109). The lesions that had appeared on Edward's arms and legs have healed, but have been replaced by something hard and shiny, more like scales than skin. Compared to photos of Edward taken just six or seven years before, he's been transformed, or, as William thinks, Edward is "not a man in the same way now" (109).

William asks Edward what might have bothered Dr. Bennett so much. Edward replies that he thinks it was his doctor jokes, and he begins to recite them to William, who doesn't agree that they upset Dr. Bennett. He asks his father if, instead, it might have been that he wasn't being "straightforward" (111) with Dr. Bennett. Edward says there's no use in being straightforward about his illness, since there's no cure. It reminds him of "the Great Plague of '33" (111), which struck Ashland and killed a dozen people, including the "strongest man" (111) in the town.

He's cut off by William, who tells his dad that he doesn't want anymore stories or jokes. This tickles Edward, who claims that he doesn't tell stories that come close to the ones his own father told him as a kid, which William doesn't believe. Edward tells his son that he's not supposed to believe it, rather, he needs to "believe in it" (112), like a metaphor. He turns this, too, into a joke, and William loses his patience. He accuses Edward of being afraid of getting close with him. Edward thinks about this for a moment, then says that it's probably because of his own father.

He tells William that his father was a drunk, to the point that he had trained the family's dog, Juniper, to go down to the saloon with a bucket and a dollar and come back with beer. One day, he sends Juniper to the saloon with a five-dollar bill, and the dog doesn't come back home. Edward's father goes to the saloon and finds Juniper sitting at the bar, drinking a martini. He asks the dog why he never did anything like that before, and the dog replies, "I never had the money before" (113).

This joke doesn't amuse William. Edward insists that he can talk without joking, so William asks him to talk about Ashland, where he grew up. Edward responds by saying it was so small that "when you plugged in an electric razor, the street lights dimmed" (113). Disappointed, William tells Edward that he loves him, but that he's making this whole process difficult for everyone. Met with more jokes, he gets up to leave, but Edward grabs his wrist. He tells William, sincerely, that he saw his own death, and knows that today is not the day it will happen. William believes him and asks how he knows. Edward explains that he's had "this power, this vision" (115) since he was a kid in the form of prophetic dreams about his aunt and grandfather's deaths. One night, he dreams that his father dies. His father spends the next day terrified that something will happen to him. When he comes home from work, he complains to Edward's mother that he's had the worst day of his "entire life" (116). She replies that if he thinks he's had a bad day, he should consider the milkman, who "dropped dead on the porch this morning" (116).

Infuriated by his father's inability to be serious, William storms out of the guest room, slamming the door. He hopes Edward has a heart attack. From behind the closed door, Edward calls out to his son, asking him where his sense of humor and pity is.

In the first flashback to include William, Edward and Sandra are spending a hot summer day at home. Edward is in the yard, mowing the lawn and listening to a college football game on a transistor radio, while Sandra is inside the house, sweating, and looking at the electric bill. She feels the baby, William, shift inside of her, and knows that he'll be coming soon. Meanwhile, Auburn, Edward's alma mater, is coming back from being down in the first half. As Sandra packs her things for the hospital, Edward finishes mowing the lawn. Inside the house, Sandra screams as she goes into labor, and outside the house, Edward screams as Auburn wins the game.

William recalls how Edward first encounters him, as a newborn child. Edward considers him "helpless, with no real skills to speak of" (120), in contrast to the babies born when he was, who "had to pull their weight" (120). Despite this, Edward loves his son, and, when he's not crying or sleeping, sees his "potential in the world" (121).

Being a new father weighs on Edward, who feels that women are made to stay at home and care for their families, while men have to be fathers, but also providers who worked outside the home. He begins to take his job more seriously, and his coworkers notice. He even makes a list on a paper bag of the qualities he wants to pass onto his son, including "strength, intelligence, imagination" (122).

Though he could find a desk job, Edward prefers work as a traveling salesman. As William puts it, Edward loves his wife and son, but can "only stand so much love" (122-123) and so many demands on his time. When he comes home from his travels, he feels the house has changed, his wife has changed, and his son has grown. It's as though, as William grows, Edward shrinks, so that eventually William will become a giant, and Edward will become "nothing, invisible in the world" (123).

He does do traditional fatherly things with William, like playing catch and buying him a bicycle. He also takes him up to the mountain that overlooks the town for picnics, and then points out all of the places in town that have significance to his own life. As he does this, he tells William, "Someday son, this will all be yours" (124).

Edward saves William's life twice during his childhood. The first time, William is five years old and playing in a nearby ditch, in which Edward has warned him many times not to play. William imagines the ditch, which is dry save for a steady trickling flow of water, is a prehistoric riverbed, filled with fossils. He's so consumed by this fantasy that he doesn't realize a wall of water is coming towards him in the ditch. Edward arrives just in time to grab William out of the ditch, which has now become a river.

The second time, William is playing on a swing set left behind by the previous owners of the Bloom's new house. As the movers bring in the couches, William tries to see how high he can get the swing to go. He doesn't realize that the swing set is no longer set into the cement, and flies off of the swing, heading straight for a white picket fence. Suddenly, Edward appears beneath him "as though he were flying" (127). He wraps him arms around William and they both land safely on the ground.

William recalls how Edward gave him "early indications that he would live forever" (128). For example, he once falls off the roof when he climbs a ladder left behind by a gardener to see whether he can spot his office building from there. William warns his father not to climb the ladder, but Edward just winks at him and does it. After walking around on the roof for a while, unable to see his office building, Edward falls. At nine years old, William expects his father to grow wings, and when he doesn't, William fears that he's dead. He approaches his father in the bush where he's fallen and sees on his face "that expression of beatific slumber" (129) associated with death. Edward suddenly winks at his son and asks, "[h]ad you going there, didn't I?" (129).

In a fable-like interlude, William explains that, despite his father's ambition, world travel, and ability to make friends anywhere, his best gift is his sense of humor. He compares the story about his father's staged fall from the roof to a hypothetical story about a man and his cat.

The man, Roger, has a beloved cat that he leaves in the care of his neighbor while he's out of town. On his first night away, he misses the cat so much that he calls his neighbor to check in on it.The neighbor says that the cat "was run over by a car. Killed instantly. Sorry" (131). Though he's upset by this news, he's much more upset by the delivery. He tells the neighbor that next time he has to deliver upsetting news, he should do it slowly. For example, he should have said that the cat was on the roof, and that two days later, it fell off the roof and ended up in intensive care, where it passed away.

Three days later, Roger calls the neighbor to make sure everything is okay with his house, and the neighbor says that something important happened, and it has to do with his father. Alarmed, Roger asks what happened. The neighbor tells him that his father is on the roof.

William likens this to the memory he has of Edward standing on the roof, impressive in his shiny shoes and dark suit. He remembers that just as Edward starts to fall, he looks down at his son and winks.

While he's dying, Edward has a dream about his death, which he relates to William. A group of mourners, numbering close to fifty, has gathered outside of the house, hoping for some news of Edward's recovery. They cheer when they see him through the window, getting up to use the bathroom. Some of the mourners look ragged, while others are well-dressed. After a few weeks, Sandra asks William to tell them to leave.

As William goes out to tell them, he realizes that the mourners have become "entrenched" (134) in the yard. They've set up a buffet, a tent city (in which a baby has been born), and an information center, where a man with a cell phone contacts "loved ones far away" (135). In the middle of the yard, an old man sits on a lawn chair. The man looks familiar to William, but he doesn't know who he is.

He approaches the man and starts to introduce himself, but the man cuts him off, saying, "I know who you are…you are his son" (135). He asks William if he has "some word" (135) for the group. William replies that there's no news, he's feeling "the same" (136) and still swimming every day. The man announces the news about the swimming to the crowd and they all cheer. As he settles back down, he tells William he knows that he's there to ask the crowd to leave. The man says that they will, but that it will be hard for the people, who will feel "lost without this place" (137). William tells the man that they make his mother nervous. The man assures William they will leave the yard as they found it.

Just then, a woman runs up to William and hands him a small silk pillow to give to Edward. She says it's filled with "healing herbs" (137) that might help him. She explains that Edward saved her life once. The man tells her that "he's asked us to leave" (138). She asks him if Edward asked them to leave, and the man tells her that it's Edward's son and wife who've asked them to leave. "It is just as you said," (138) the woman replies. This frustrates William and he tells them, defensively, that doing this isn't something he enjoys.

Something else has caught the crowd's attention. They all look up to the house's second-floor window, where Edward stands in his yellow bathrobe, waving to them. The crowd waves back, delighted. Edward withdraws into his darkened bedroom, and people surround William, praising him for taking good care of his father, and telling him that they "owe everything" (139) to Edward. They all speak at once, overwhelming William, until the man hushes them. The man turns to William and tells him that Edward has touched or helped each person in the crowd. He says that they're "a part of him…just as he is a part of us" (139). William, however, doesn't understand what he means.

As the man speaks to William, he remembers where he met him. He asks the man what Edward did for him, and the man replies that Edward "made me laugh" (139). In the dream, Edward tells William he knew who the man was. Secure in this knowledge, William walks back into his house as the man begins telling a joke in a loud voice. He asks why an elephant has a trunk, then replies, as William mouths along with him, "Because he doesn't have a glove compartment" (140). The crowd laughs, and Edward's dream ends.