Preview

The River Runs Through It Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
840 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The River Runs Through It Essay
Paul and Norman grew up in the same household, with the same values, but from their fishing styles, to their jobs and educations, to their social lives, their differences amount to those of night and day. While boys, young in age and mindsets, Paul and Norman learned to fish from Mr. Maclean. This factor had vast significance because, in this preacher's family, a clear line between fishing and religion had no presence. Mr. Maclean taught his sons the conventional four-count.
As Paul matured, he converted, from using the common four-count, to something a bit more innovative, shadow casting. The technique wasn't the only thing he altered. He also caught fish for quality, which leaked with palpability when he told Norman he aspired to catch the most prevalent fish in the river. Another exceptionally nontraditional detail about Paul's fishing has to deal with the fact that he took incredible risks. This trait had particular obviousness when he went into the rapids in order to catch the fish of his dreams.
Traditionalistic in his fishing style, unlike his brother, Paul used the four-count all of his life. Paul slightly stunned him when he when changed to shadow casting. Another difference in their fishing is, Norman caught for quantity, and he never tried to catch a big fish. He just got any fish that came to his line. Also, Norman took great caution while at the river; he stayed close to shore any time he fished. He even had a little resistance when Paul told him to step farther out in order to catch more fish.
Tremendously nontraditional describes Paul's fishing, but when it came to his job and education, traditionalism ruled. He, along with a great majority of children his age went to public schools. Not very many kids got home schooled. During mid teens, Paul chose to work as a lifeguard so he could hit on all of the girls. When time came to pick a college, Paul chose to go to a community college. Later in life, Paul pursued journalism for a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Palm Trees, Clear water, and sunshine - this is Florida. Paradise - right? Not for Paul Fisher who lives among muck fires, lightning strikes, and sinkholes. Not to mention, an older brother who is violent and angry most days. Protagonist Paul Fisher must deal with negative faces including his brother Erik and his brother’s friend Arthur inside his house and outside his house in the novel Tangerine. Paul also faces many different problems in the book such as having to switch schools three times throughout the book. These are just some of the many problems Paul Fisher faces throughout the book Tangerine.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Early in novel, Paul moved from Lake Windsor Middle School to Tangerine because of the sinkhole. Once he was there, he chose to try out for the Tangerine soccer team. He was happy because he couldn't play soccer at Lake Windsor Middle School, because Mrs. Fisher signed an IEP and the soccer coach said that the insurance wouldn’t allow Paul to play because it was dangerous. He had a new chance at the new school to play soccer…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Discovering friends and finding things hard in the beginning are all part of Paul's future life, When he joins a rock band with a bunch of students, he suddenly feels in control as if he had finally found control and authority. As time goes by after he finds himself looking for a way, finding direction; thinking about what he should do with his life. What he was lacking was that little bit, which had been keeping him from winning. In the first few lessons, we learn that Paul has yet to touch a single key on the…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A reason is because he automatically sets up his fishing supplies as if it was a habit. He also seems very passionate and knowledgeable about fish. Another reason is because while he was on the date with Shelia he seemed much more focused on the fish than her. When he talked with Shelia about fishing instead of removing it from the boat he just hid it. During most of the boat ride he was dealing with the fish and pretending to listen to her. And a third reason he could choose the Bass is because in part of the story he refers to Shelia as a memory.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Golden Carp stood out to Antonio and made him comprehend ideas unbeknownst to him before. The Golden Carp stands out in Antonio's life and will stick with him forever as a symbol of new understanding. Cico and Ultima introduced Antonio to the deep part of the river where nobody…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Paul changes in many ways, good and bad. What are some examples of Paul changing and good and bad ways and is changing for Paul always good? The book is mostly about a kid by the name of Paul fisher who moves from Houston, Texas to Florida and starts school at Lake Windsor. He doesn't really fit into this new school. He is shy, and not very confident. As a sinkhole happens at the new school, he then had to transfer to Tangerine middle school. He makes some friends there, but right as he makes some friend, two of his friends die. His brother is a big trouble maker. Erik fisher’s friend kills Luis Cruz then goes to jail. As Paul struggles with confidence, he feels like an outsider, but soon he realized he already has confidence, but he only has…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ‘The narrator’s quest for Trout Fishing in America is a series of disappointments’ (Tony Tanner). How important do you feel disappointment, loss and death are in Trout Fishing in America?…

    • 2271 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The environment the boys grew up affects them in different ways. Growing up the boys were taught how to properly fly fish and how one must respect the art behind fly fishing before one can catch a fish. Fly fishing is very important to them because it is an escape from reality. The river is one place where they can all be family and something they all love. Paul loves the river and fly fishing because it gets him away from the world and helps him see the simple things in life. for Norman it is the one thing he that reminds him of Montana and his family. The environment of growing up under a priest helped Norman get a better education but for Paul it made him seek more of a defiant man. They grew up in a tough era, shown by how both the boys love fighting and…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Baseball Magic

    • 5076 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Trobriand Islanders, according to anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, felt the same way about their fishing magic. Among the Trobrianders, fishing took two forms: in the inner lagoon where fish were plentiful and there was little danger, and on the open sea where fishing was dangerous and yields varied widely. Malinowski found that magic was not used in lagoon fishing, where men could rely solely on their knowledge and skill. But when fishing on the open sea, Trobrianders used a great deal of magical ritual to ensure safety and increase their catch.…

    • 5076 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Different types of media can be used to present the same ideas and information, but with the use of different types of media, the ideas can be perceived as different things. The same principle comes to be true after viewing the work of “A River Runs through it” by Norman Maclean. After having observed the novel and the film, both forms of media proved to have its advantages. The novel does a much better job of accurately representing the theme of the story and allowing the reader to interpret the overall message as well as representing characters for what they should be, however the movie gains an advantage by using visual representations as well at audio to help the audience understand.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although it’s been many years and many miles since I last spent an afternoon with Tim Stengel, on afternoons filled with lecture notes and correcting essays, I often reflect on the last fishing trip the two of us young bucks spent along the secluded shores of the Little Manitou River. In many ways, this last trip spent in the coniferous forests of Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region, really envelopes who Tim was and why I so looked up to him.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Boat - Essay

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod that was written in 1968, is a story about conflict between tradition and freedom. The father is a fisherman who only continues his job because he is chained through the past of others. The family son is restricted from his education because he spends a lot of time on the boat worried about his parents expectations. His mother believes that he will carry on and take his fathers place in the fisherman position. When the father is not out on the boat, he is in his room reading, to escape the world of imprisonment and monotonous duty. The mother of the family believes that the tradition of being a fisherman in the boat, is the only right way for her husband and children to continue living their lives. The author is trying to tell us to follow our dreams in life that won't keep us chained and unhappy and to never limit your options. As the father is unable to live freely, he is chained to his job through tradition.…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This story is about two brothers named Paul and Norman growing up in Montana during the 1920s. Their father John is a Presbyterian minister and raises them based on his strong religious beliefs. The film also revolves around the brother’s and father’s love for fly-fishing. In the opening dialogue Norman says, “In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.” He goes on to say that his father told them about Christ’s disciples being fishermen and how he and his brother Paul believed that John was a dry fly-fisherman. (Redford, 1992)…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    3 John, Wendy, and Sean, all avid fishermen, have noticed that they always seem to catch more fish when it is raining outside. They decide to test the hypotheses.…

    • 530 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethnography on Fishing

    • 2054 Words
    • 9 Pages

    After an analysis of the sport of fishing, I have learned a lot about its discourse community and how people are involved in the sport today, and how the sport has effected the world today. My research started with the interpretation of several books related to the discourse community, which brought the attention of new information about professional fishing to the forefront of my research of the everyday life of the discourse community members. The sport of fishing has a wide variety of the type of members that represent the community, such as new members, or members that are not as serious as a professional fisherman, but anyone can join the discourse as an up and coming member at anytime, especially little kids. To become apart of this discourse all you really need to do is have the desire to go fishing, which a lot of people use as a relaxation tool for their life.…

    • 2054 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays