“They had come all the way from the ocean to spawn here, Dwight said, and then they would die. They were already dying. The change from salt to fresh water had turned their flesh rotten. Long strips of it hung off of their bodies, waving in the current” (Wolff 75).
The image of the dying salmon serves as a parallel to Jack and his mother. Just as the salmon make their long journey, Jack and his mother must make their voyage as well. The salmon must make a harsh journey to get to their final destination, just as the pair reach their final home when travelling for so long a time. The family must change their setting to create a new family, no matter the cost. As Jack states that the salmon were “already dying,” the symbol foreshadows the fate that awaits the two. As Dwight explains the condition of the salmon, it is as if he is telling them of the life that awaits them. The salmon reject their new home by being eaten away by the water. Jack and Rosemary must endure the instability and hostility of their new environment, which will soon eat away at them. Rosemary feels compelled to marry Dwight as the salmon instinctually swim upstream to spawn. Rosemary and Jack will begin their slow, figurative death once they join Dwight in his inhospitable and unfamiliar home. Though one may see the end results of the salmon and the mother and son to be different, their goals draw parallels. The salmon beat themselves bloody to form new life. While Rosemary and Jack endure a slow decay in their new environment, Jack too learns to create a new life for himself. The harsh conditions the salmon endure are similar to Jack’s situation as the obstacles only inspire Jack to form a new life later in the novel.
I too felt that the dying salmon paralleled the fate in which Rosemary and Jack were to face. They were "animals," forced to adapt to their new surroundings and were deprived of their voices once under the control of Dwight. However, their ultimate fates, I feel, ended completely temporarily. While salmon's death was immutable, Rosemary and Jack's death was only apart of them as a whole. Their "death" was noted under the reign of Dwight, which impacted their mindset and heart. When the time was right, they both were able to escape their "death," which resulted in a "rebirth" or a new opportunity to start their lives over.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the decay of the salmon symbolized the similar decay of Jack and his mother after moving, but I really like how you express this idea and are able to explore all of the meanings the salmon symbolize. I didn't tie in the salmon's instinct to migrate with Jack and his mother's need to move, and I enjoyed realizing the parallel between the two. Chantel also has a good point that the even though the salmon are dying, they are able to create a new generation just as Jack is able to create a new opportunity in his life, despite the temporary death he faces in Dwight's household.
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