There are quite a few truths to the film “Big Fish”, which are perceived differently for many people. The truth is that Edward uses his large imagination to create a fantasy that represents his reality. Protagonist Edward Bloom tells his stories from the time that he was born all the way up to adulthood, in a manner that no sane person could bring himself or herself to believe. Yet, when you look beneath the exaggerations and metaphors of Ed’s stories, the truth is in some way there.
Edward doesn’t like to give away the truth easily; instead, he appreciates using his imagination to express what was happening at that time of his life so that the listener experiences what his emotions were at that time and learns a lesson as well. “I’ve been nothin’ but myself since the day I was born, and if you can’t see that it’s your failin’, not mine. ” Edward explains to his son; this quote demonstrates Edwards’s feelings on Will’s opinion of him. The truth of the story is that Edward tells his stories in puzzle pieces; you have to put the pieces together to see the bigger picture.
Another truth within “Big Fish” is that Edward Bloom has always been a step behind his ideas. At the beginning of the movie he arrives at Spectre at an early point in his life, so he sets off to see the rest of the world first. Edward finally meets Sandra after three years of working towards finding her. This is the right time to go back to Spectre to live there with Sandra- but the military is in need of him and Edward is recruited for war. He is late once again returning from the war when his wife thinks he is already dead.
Sandra then gives birth to Edwards’s son, to which he is regrettably late for also. This is the right time for Edward to look after his son Will, yet to his surprise he discovers Spectre is run down and no longer the prosperous town he once knew seemingly due to his absence. He tries to fix this concluding to abandoning his son. In the end Edward should have died the way that his son tells him, but he is too late and has no time or energy left until morning. He dies and he is not on time, as he wanted.
The last truth I observed in the film “Big Fish” is that Edward Bloom sees himself as the big fish. In the end of the movie, he turns himself into a big catfish after he takes the ring out of his mouth then gives it to his wife. Becoming a fish in Spectres River means that he becomes something like the naked woman he saw, which represents the big fish that can not be caught, and is seen differently in everyone’s eyes I feel this is a great representation of Edward Bloom. “You were a big fish in a small pond, but this here is the ocean and you’re drownin’. – Amos Calloway. After Amos says this to Edward, he can’t help but believe that he ultimately is a ‘big fish’.
Also, when Edward is old and ill from cancer, his wife finds him soaking in the tub under the water. When he realizes his wife is watching he comes to the surface and says, “I was drying up” implying that he is a fish. Edward also spent a great amount of his time in the pool prior to being ill. These underlying clues throughout the film depict that Edward Bloom characterizes himself as the “big fish. “
