The Secret Goldfish Summary

The short story “The Secret Goldfish” is written by David Means. In his short story he teaches his readers that an impossible predicament can be overcome in favor of a fresh start. In the short story the author uses symbolism to connect the mother’s adulthood with her childhood. David Means uses the goldfish as a parallel to the marriage of the parents. The theme of this short story is that life can give a person many obstacles but if the person does not give up then they can live a better future. Means showed how hard it was for the mother to overcome and to move past her father’s death and her father’s treatment of the childhood pet. Before the father died he dumped the beloved fish into a pond near their house. The author showed this impact that it had on her childhood and how she was never to resolve from that dramatic event. By the time she became …show more content…
When she got married and had children she never wanted her children to feel the same way she did as a child. Before getting married she made sure she was marrying someone with a less dangerous job than her father and moved to a much calmer area. Also, she wanted to prepare her children for loss so when something happened they would be able to cope with it unlike when the mother was a child. The story mainly shows how the mother was able to overcome the painful, child loss of Fred. The author Means uses parallelism as a form of symbolism throughout the short story to show how the Fish’s was able to survive the challenges along with the mother’s challenges in regards to herself and the domestic relationship she was in. As the Fish was first introduced in the story the mom and dad had a happy loving marriage. Later in the story it was revealed the dad was having an affair. Eventually the mother was unable to deal with her infidelity to their marriage. This is the time when Fish was not having his tank cleaned