Ricochet River Analysis

Ricochet River Throughout the novel, Ricochet River, Robin Cody portrays the life of a senior in high school, Wade, and his struggle to figure out the way the world works and how he fits into it. Along the way he is met with hardships between him and his girlfriend, Lorna, and his best friend, Jesse. Cody relates his characters to salmon to show how human beings’ determination and willingness to overcome obstacles leads to them becoming stronger. Wade has lived his whole life in the town of Calamus. He, like almost everyone else doesn’t really expect to go anywhere after he graduates. When the dam went up at Klamath Falls it appeared it would be no different for the salmon in that area as well. Wade noticed that “[s]ome of the fingerlings made it downstream and out to the ocean. But when they got back as adults, years later, they wouldn’t take the ladder past the dam” (113). The dam is the border to Calamus for all the people that live there. This relates to the people being born in Calamus but couldn’t get out because of the “dam” that they had before them. They had been placed in this society and they were too weak and too scared to get out. Wade notices that some people in town are screaming to get out; “[He] saw a big old humpback male take a running swim at the
However, Lorna helps him see all of the possibilities that are beyond the “dam”. Wade makes it up the “fish ladder” in order to stop being timid and instead become the fittest. Ultimately, Cody’s choice to include the similarities between the salmon and the townspeople helps the reader to understand the evolution of Wade throughout the story better. The reader is able to connect it to something else and use real life examples to connect it with the story to portray Cody’s message more