In class assignment

Are there any prominent symbols in the story? If so, what are they, and how are they used.

Within in the story I noticed that prominent symbols were water and land. The Water represented an older time, a simpler time, while land represented change, evolution, and the future. The uncle was all anti-land and change while his nephew was embarrassed of his uncle unwillingness to change and evolve toward what he believed a better future. The author goes back and forth using these symbols to demonstrate the conflicting ideals of two animals.

What connection did you make with the story?

            As the first family within my whole extended family to immigrate to America I can connect rather easily with the story. Instead of water, its my home country, Venezuela, instead of land it my current country America. My family in a sense are he minority, I only have a tiny few who actually live here in the states, while the rest of my family live back in my country.  We have tried to persue my other aunts and grandmother to move to the states to have a better standard of living due to how awful the conditions are within Venezuela. Most of the time it’s a money problem, but there have been times when they had a chance at a better life, a more secure life, but chose to stay within the corrupted country that is Venezuela. In a way I’m the fish trying to get my uncle out of the water, thinking it would make a better life for him.

What changes would you make to adopt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

I would make this into a stop motion film and instead of two animals; I would use a grandmother and her grandchild. The child being an immigrant in other country, while the grandmother stays back in her home country.  No matter what the child would say to her grandmother to convince her to come and live a better life, her grandmother would continue to say no.