Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

Part I

Reading Check

1. A severe drought (Part 1, “The Day I Was Born”)

2. A cloud releases rain. (Part 1, “The Day I Was Born”)

3. He has a way with animals. (Part 1, “In Which He Speaks to Animals”)

4. A 16-foot snowman (Part 1, “The Year It Snowed in Alabama”)

5. He can recognize people by their footfalls. (Part 1, “His Great Promise”)

6. He is dying from a progressive illness. (Part 1, “My Father’s Death: Take 1”)

7. Natural disasters (Part 1, “My Father’s Death: Take 1”)

8. She names the place where it happened “Edward’s Grove.” (Part 1, “The Girl in the River”)

9. That some of them are bigger than people (Part 1, “In Which He Goes Fishing”)

10. Through “the place that had no name” (Part 1, “The Day He Left Ashland”)

11. They helped him when he was mugged. (Part 1, “Entering A New World”)

Short Answer

1. He exaggerates details of his life to make it more interesting. He is preoccupied with his own importance and frequently discusses how to become great. (Various Parts)

2. Edward offers himself as a sacrifice to the giant and when the giant cries, offers to teach the giant how to farm and cook. This encounter earns Edward the reputation for being able to charm anyone. (Part 1, “How He Tamed the Giant”)

Part II

Reading Check

1. Her eye (Part 2, “The Old Lady and the Eye”)

2. Don Price (Part 2, “In Which He Makes His Move”)

3. She told him she would think about it. (Part 2, “The Fight”)

4. He rips out the dog’s heart. (Part 2, “His Three Labors”)

5. It was struck by a torpedo. (Part 2, “He Goes to War”)

6. A demigod (Part 2, “My Father’s Death: Take 3”)

7. The roof of the house (Part 2, “His Immortality”)

8. Mourners (Part 2, “In Which He Has a Dream”)

9. Edward made him laugh. (Part 2, “In Which He Has a Dream”)

Short Answer

1. Edward feels as though William doesn’t have to pull his weight like Edward did when he was born, but he loves him anyway. Edward takes his job as the provider of his family more seriously and makes a list of the qualities he would like to pass on to his son. Edward also feels that as William grows bigger, Edward grows smaller. (Various parts)

2. The first time William is playing in a ditch and fantasizing about fossils being in the ditch when a wall of water threatens to wash him away, but his father grabs him before it can. The second time William is on a swing and wants to see how high it will go, but the swing is no longer attached to cement. William is flying toward a picket fence when his father catches him. (Part 2, “How He Saved My Life”)

3. It appears William has as much propensity for telling stories as his father and this makes it difficult to decipher fact from fiction in the telling of his story. (Various parts)

Part III

Reading Check

1. Specter (Part 3, “In Which He Buys a Town and More”)

2. She owns the last property he needs to own Specter fully. (Part 3, “In Which He Buys a Town and More”)

3. Swim (Part 3, “How It Ends”)

4. A fish (Part 3, “How It Ends”)

5. His son (Part 3, “My Father’s Death: Take 4”)

6. To Edward’s Grove (Part 3, “Big Fish”)

7. A big fish (Part 3, “Big Fish”)

8. Grant wishes and saves lives (Part 3, “Big Fish”)

Short Answer

1. Jenny sits by the window and looks out. She doesn’t tend her garden or interact with the townspeople and her eyes begin to glow. (Part 3, “In Which He Buys a Town and More”)

2. William indicates that this is what actually happens when his father dies. Unlike previous depictions, Edward is in the hospital instead of the guest bedroom and William never reveals to him what he really wants to say. (Various parts)

3. That he wishes he knew him better and that they had spent more time together (Various parts)

4. Edward achieves immortality through William and the townspeople’s storytelling, but in a mythical sense, Edward also achieves immortality by becoming a big fish living in the river. (Various parts)