In our modern American society, oppression is something that still exists and has been harmful to people, hurting their lives. The fishing process can symbolize how normal people are fair to the clutches of oppression they cannot control. For many people, opportunities can be very scarce. Through the depiction of peach, Bishop uses powerful visual and kinesthetic imagery, creative metaphors, and long stanzas to show the clutches of oppression. Bishop also manipulates the diction of the words to make the fish sound beautiful, but it isn't. Throughout this poem, Elizabeth Bishop uses extreme imagery about how fishing works. With these images, we can get a good idea of ​​what oppression can do to the normal person in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay When there is oppression and lack of opportunity in someone's life, it can be paralyzing and cause despair. Despair can be a metaphor for what happens when a hook is set in a fish's mouth. “He didn't fight/He hadn't fought at all. /It hung a grunt/battered and vulnerable/and insignificant weight” (Bishop, 767). When a fish is hooked, the chances of escape are very slim. If the fish tries to escape the hook, the pain is extreme and the possibility of escaping the hook becomes unlikely. Then, the moment the fish is pulled into the boat, desperation engulfs their thought process. That's why when Bishop pulls the fish over the side of the boat, it sits there dangling. When someone is experiencing the depths of oppression, it makes sense to give up because there is no escape. When Bishop describes the fish, he uses very profound imagery in his language that paints a very detailed picture of the fish. Bishop notes, “While his gills breathed the terrible oxygen / – the fearful gills / fresh and crisp with blood / that can cut so badly” (Bishop, 767). The way he describes this fish is very vivid and has a negative connotation. The fish's gills were "fresh and crisp with blood/that can cut so badly" showing that the fish could be injured by the process of reeling in the fish. That line alone provides a very powerful and negative image of the fish. If you were to read that line as a description of the fish, you would probably think that it is a killer fish. Even if it's just a regular fish that's been speared on a hook. So, from those verses this is what caught the attention when the description of the fish came into play. Throughout the poem, Bishop uses changes in diction to describe the fish, which can give off different meanings of what the fish is like. Bishop explains, “It was dotted with barnacles/fine rosettes of lime/and infested/with tiny white lice/and two or three rags of green algae hung underneath.” The way Bishop describes the external appearance of the fish is interesting. When he first refers to the barnacle coating on the fish, he uses the word “speckled” to describe the layer of barnacles. Barnacles are a crustacean that attaches to the outer covering of a fish and feeds on the water. They are a parasite that lives in the ocean, so they are not cute in any way. The word speckled is used many times to describe something that might be “cute.” People may use the word speckle if they are talking about a beautiful color pattern. In this case it is a large crustacean that lives on the skin of fish and feeds on them. Also, it's very interesting how he uses "fine rosettes of lime" to describe what was thereon the fish. From the way it's worded, there seems to be something classy or clean about it. But, from the context of the fish, it could be a water lily or a bunch of weeds hanging off the fish, which would not be considered a “pretty rosette.” In the face of evil, the oppressor can have final power over life and death. Here, Bishop is in that power threshold with the fish. McFarland points out, “Death is on the fringes of Bishop's poem if only because the speaker has the power of life and death over the fish” (McFarland, 1982). Bishop may view the capture as a victory, but in this situation she is the deciding factor between life and death. From the details of the fish it already looked battered. Bishop describes: "-if I could call it a lip-/sad, wet and weapon-like/ hung five old pieces of line/ or four and a leader/ with the swivel still attached/ with all their five big hooks/ grown tight in his mouth” (Bishop, 768). This fish has already been deceived several times by the fishing process. The fisherman baits the hook into thinking it is food. empty promises can ultimately lead to harm. This fish already had five big hooks in its mouth from other incidents. In this poem, Bishop dives so deeply into the metaphors about the fish that he loses his grip on the reality of the fish Fish", Bishops feels a great sense of joy in catching this fish. Throughout his poem he uses very provocative metaphors to discuss the beauty of fish. But sometimes in the poem his way of using the description of the fish strays from the reality of itself. Doty points out: “People continually emerge from the history they live; everyday life is full of small moments of rupture, disappearance and interiority. But sometimes these experiences are longer lasting and deeper. The woman in the boat holding the prey has left causality; his encounter with otherness restructures his sense of the world” (Doty, 2010). In most cases, the fish was not a beautiful creature. From the very beginning of the poem, he tells you that he has caught a "terrible fish." From that sentence, you might believe that the fish Bishop caught was a nice catch that belonged on the wall. Bishop moved from detailing the outside of the fish, then inside the fish, and back to the outside (Doty, 2010). In this way, the format of the poem was very short lines but all grouped into one giant stanza. By formatting the poem this way there is a story told in these short lines. Bishop uses the strategy of a long stanza to create a buildup to the climax of the story, to keep the reader engaged. Use short, powerful sentences to really try to convince yourself that this fish is incredible. Catron explains, “Bishop conveys this empathy to the reader through dense and demanding descriptive sentences, full of similes and metaphors” (Catron, 2002). Bishop builds the story in this poem about the fish being beautiful. When you read the poem at the beginning, there is a feeling of rising action, as if there is a great climax at the end of the work. The more he immersed himself in the fish's physical problems, the more guilt he seemed to feel. “Ashamed and horrified by the abuse she has inflicted on the fish, she experiences a dramatic change of heart” (“Overview: “The Fish”). When this change of heart seems to occur is when the entire story changes. praising this fish as if he has won a trophy, but after seeing the whole fish, and after the whole story has developed, he ends up letting the fish go Finally, in our modern American society, oppression is something that still exists and has been harmful to Opportunities can come to people in all shapes and forms.. 2017