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Literary Elements In Tim Burton's Big Fish

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Tim Burton’s Big Fish tells the story of the wild life of Edward Bloom. Some aspects of Bloom’s life is fictionalize and exaggerated by Bloom himself which causes the relationship with his son William to become tense. His son believes he doesn’t truly know his father due to the constant fairytale like stories Edwards has been telling him over the years. It takes Edward Bloom being on his deathbed to encourage his son to return in which William has to find the truth about his father’s life and fix their uneasy relationship. Burton’s film has been praised well by film critics due to its excellent storytelling and use of literary devices, which makes the film enjoyable for the audience. Many literary elements are present in the film. Beginning with the title of the film, Big Fish holds a great deal of symbolism. The title symbolizes the life of William Bloom. Bloom is a big fish in a small pond, who’s ambition and personality are way to huge for his small town to contain. This prompts Bloom to finally leave his small town and move to the “big city, in which the size of his ambition will fit his environment. Bloom had to move to the city in order to expand his horizon. This symbolism is enjoyable because it gives the title …show more content…

The relationship in the film is between Edward and William Bloom who relationship has not been so easy due to William getting tired of the stories his father constantly tells to him and others. Not until the end of the film is where William finds out that the stories his father has been telling contain some type of truth in them and that his stories were a way to keep his life immortal. This theme is enjoyable as well because it also feeds the question to the audience whether or not a person truly knows their parent. Even if the relationship is good, does a child ever truly know their parent? Big Fish forces this question into the viewer’s

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What seemed to be the biggest bass in the river, snagged on the line. There is no way the boy could let Sheila know of this. The rest of the night, the narrator maneuvers the boat perfectly and somehow manages to keep the fish on the line, without Sheila having any knowledge. They finally reach their destination and the boy is faced with a crippling decision. The boy has to either cut the line, letting the fish go, or risk having Sheila lose all interest in him by reeling in the fish.

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Mr. Foster utilizes the beginning of his speech by describing fish swimming and meeting an older fish. David then continues and the fish asks, "What the hell is water?" meaning that the fish do not really understand what challenges they are about to face subsequently graduating

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Water- an everyday need so simple that nobody ever thinks about it. Daniel Wallace’s novel Big Fish uses water as a way of symbolizing life. In the book, a father called Edward Bloom tells stories to his son, William, but this is all he ever tells to Will. When Edward starts dying, Will ends up taking him to a river and Edward magically turns into a fish. In Edward’s stories and his transformation, water symbolizes life.

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Tim Burton is a famous director who puts a lot of originality into his work. Burton uses editing techniques, music and sound, as well as shots and framing and camera movements to determine the mood of the scene. Editing is one of the techniques Burton uses to create emotion and suspense in the audience. One way Burton does this is by using fade in Big Fish, Edward crosses paths with Karl who was waiting for him on the longer road.

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During this time, Edward just speaks in his head. He wonders why this was happening to him. Tim Burton leaks his personal thoughts and opinions on puberty into this section of big fish. It could be believed that Tim thinks it is a troublesome part of life and it seems to happen so quickly. On the other hand, we can also see that the process, that was so painful, stopped right when Edward realized something about himself.

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Tim Burton’s distinct style became evident in his very first films and stayed clear in his later film, while the plot of Burton’s films vary greatly his style stays pronounced. This can be seen across his many movies from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, “Vincent”, and “Frankenweenie”. In all of these films his distinct style is developed through the use of a strong contrast of high and low key lighting to show contrast between characters and circumstances, a recurring motif of mobs antagonizing the antagonist, and the frequent use of shot reverse shots to show the development of the relationship between the outsider and the people on the inside. With the use of a contrast between high and low-key lighting, a recurring mob motif, and the use of shot-reverse-shots Tim Burton develops his hopelessly bleak style. One of the most evident cinematic techniques that Tim Burton uses to develop his hopelessly bleak style is the use of a strong contrast of high and low-key lighting or colors.

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While a child may laugh at the humorous image, the image represents the external conflict of the danger to the Fish. The Cat, at this point in the story, is representative of the Freud’s Id, “the part of the personality that contains our primitive impulses” (NCTE). The Cat represents the child’s primitive impulse to play, or have fun, without self-control or thinking of the consequences that might follow. If the Cat continues with this balancing act and slips, the items may fall, causing the house to become a mess, but the dander to the Fish is more substantial. The Fish, who cannot defend

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