Michael Alliant’s secret goldfish had never been a secret. The incident happened long ago, but nobody ever seemed to remember. Except for Michael. After all these years, every piece of the pain was carved in his memory, as if he was always there, always making the mistake. He was eleven, an appropriate age to start to learn things. It all started with an early evening of September, on the day Michael bought his favorite pet, a goldfish. It was nothing special as a common goldfish: dark eyes, golden and orange fish scales, a triangular tail, and a silly look with a pouted mouth. It was a female, but Michael named her David. Since a small age, Michael had hated everything around himself. He was always ignored in the silent family. Everyone at school thought he was a loser due to his quietness. He needed freedom, real freedom. He also needed a true friend, a friend who could understand his world. After several intense auditions amongst all kinds of things in Michael’s mind, David received this honor of being Michael’s friend with her great personality and innocence. No one knew about David the goldfish except Michael himself. Michael kept her as a secret. David was first kept in a circular fish bowl, a small one. Michael filled it with water and placed it under his bed. Everyday after school, Michael would rush to his room excitedly, close the door gently with 200% extra caution, and pull out the bowl from the bed to see his secret friend. He would complain and moan to David about how bad school was, how he failed his tests, and how he had missed David during the day. David was indeed a good friend. She kept listening, and never disagreed with Michael. Sometimes she would mumble words like “blub” or “glu” t... ... middle of paper ... ... He often dreamed about how amazing it would be if David could swim in the lakes, view the world with her watery eyes, and tell him how happy she was with all the “blub”s and “glu”s. Oh, he was so happy. Michael stood at the door, he was ready for this wonderful birthday gift. He stepped outside. Everything was frozen. Time, space, feelings, and most importantly, the water David was in. Ice, just like what it did to all other things, locked David in the bowl. Michael couldn’t think. He stormed back into the house, and put the bowl on the table. His heart was like the ice on the bowl, broken to pieces. His precious friend, David, was frozen to death. He still could not speak, but eventually he managed to murmur some words in a way David used to do. “Things are never the way I wish.” He said, and there lied David the Secret Goldfish.
Michael needed someone to care for. On page 76, Michael goes to a pet store and gets a pet crab. The reason he gets the crab is because he is very lonely. While he is living with his aunt he doesn’t have anyone to care
Loving God and hating his own mother kept David strong. David loved God, he prayed every night to God. He hated his mother so much he wanted to outthink her tricks, he did. He used different tactics like over exaggerating his pain when he got beat, putting a wet cloth over his mouth when his mother put cleaning products in a room with him. David kept counting time in his head in order to make the time pass faster.
At first, David cares that his mother treats him badly. After awhile, he doesn’t care and becomes apathetic.
7. When the mother wanted David to lye on the stove and burn, David decided to see if he could trick her. He watched the clock and decided to see how long he could keep her from making him get on the stove until his brothers got home. He succeeded and from then on he decided that he would not give up and he would always try to outsmart his mother.
...s feeling of achievement at completing school is shown. There are close ups of the Tuohy’s with Ms Sue and Sam showing feelings of attachment with Michael. Moreover, the mid-shots of the teacher’s face highlights that he is accepted in the school community too. As such, Michael, like Billy has achieved a new sense of belonging due to connections with new people and places.
When David described the Sealand woman he described her as the image of perfection. His description of her was so perfect that it described her flaws. She was too perfect, as though artificial. She communicates on a higher level as him so that he can’t understand and does not worry about his troubles.
He tries to explain that in order to be happy, one must put himself in other people's shoes, to know that there is another world that you must enter that revolves around another individual. A person must learn that he must look at both sides of the road before crossing the road of judgment. Meaning that a person must think twice before judging someone due to the fact that you are incapable off reading other people's minds thus you cannot make a judgment about how tough their lives are and the daily hardships that they have to put up with. Before you start complaining about how long the line at the store is, realise that you are not the only person waiting in line and that there are other people waiting in line too just like you are. David uses plenty of metaphors and examples in order to further explain to the audience his statement. One example he uses in the beginning of the story is the fish example, where two young fish meet an older fish who asks them "how is the water", the two young fish then go on to reply by saying "what the hell is water?". After reading through the story, one realises that what the author means by 'water' is that in this scene, water is the representation of life. Thus you can think of it as the older fish asking the
Michael changed drastically over the course of only a few weeks. He learned more about his friends, family, and himself than he ever wanted to know.
David's deviation makes him more intelligent in many different ways. Through-out the novel David teaches himself how to send thought-shapes. He figures out what to do and starts communicating with the others. Over time David realizes his ability to send thought-shapes is a blasphemy and that he must keep it a secret or he will be sent away to the Fringes. He understands the consequences for his deviation and does everything in his power from getting himself or the group discovered. After Uncle Axel explained to David how his telepathy must be kept a secret David narrates,
Michael’s life began in Brooklyn, New York, on February 17th, 1963, where his parents James and Delores always stood by his side. His father, known for his unending support, always gave Michael advice on what to do, never letting him down. His mother made sure Michael headed in the right direction with everything he did. As a child he enjoyed athletics, engaging in basketball, baseball and football. He practiced baseball with his dad, persistently playing catch whenever time allowed. Baseball was his favorite. Even at a young age he had already tasted success by being voted Most Valuable Player on his team. “That was the first big accomplishment in my life,” Michael recalled (Harris, Laurie).
teacher. After hearing his father say that, David feels that he has to hide his
“They were pleading with me to save them, silently promising that they could offer me more fun....You could throw away an entire cow more quietly. I then carefully put the fish eyes into my pocket and went into the house” ( page 3 paragraph 5,6). This shows how David came to grow the attachment to the pair of fish eyes that his father told him to throw away otherwise there would be consequences and he would have to eat a bowl of fish eye soup. Another quote is “When I lowered, this foul article of clothing would come to rest directly on my brother’s pillow. A second dreadful sock was rigged so that it could be pulled across his pillow”.(page 1 paragraph 6). This part shows how David got his revenge back on his brother because he was constantly pranking him every time in his sleep so the consequence was that David
Uncle Axel , and The Sealand lady are the three important people in David's life whose
David's life. Later on in life David became king of all Israel. One day David
In his recorded experiences of being neglected, David mentioned how he had been denied the right to eat, have clean clothes or even bathe. He would arrive at school smelling bad with holes in his clothes because he wore the same thing every day for months. On multiple occasions he resorted to stealing food from other student’s lunches because it was the only way he knew he would get something to eat. His mother would purposefully create outrageous scenarios as an excuse to punish him whenever she pleased. Many of the occasions had occurred while she was under the influence of alcohol, but even when she was sober he fell victim to her neglect and abuse (Pelzer