There are All Kinds of Fish in the Sea
The expression “there’s plenty of fish in the sea” plays out in this book in a way that is removed from its conventional connection to failed romance. The fish in the book are plentiful and diverse. They are not just red and blue, but sad and glad and thin and fat. From the fish, the book seamlessly moves to “funny things” that are everywhere. Quicker than you can say Stanley Kubrick, the book makes the leap from fish in the sea to chronic complainers like Ned to flying kites in bed. The world is a great big place filled with all kinds of people and things and while not all are particularly nice, they make the world a much more interesting place than if it were just populated by red fish.
A Celebration of Eccentricity
While the main thematic thrust of the book is celebrate diversity, the individual characters who show up throughout the narrative are rebellious insurrectionists against merely normalcy. One creature has eleven fingers, which would normally be considered a freakish abnormality, but here the narrator expresses the wish that he was so freakishly endowed. The narrator admits to owning a Wump which makes it perhaps not so out of the ordinary, but it is a Wump with a single hump whereas Mr. Gump has a seven-hump Wump which is portrayed as unusual and very preferable. By contrast, there is Ned who is illustrated lying in a very unusual bed with two holes at the foot through which he can stick his legs. Ned, however, complains about wanting a normal bed and the further complains about how a cow, dog, cat and mouse get into bed with him. Ned is the book’s symbol of conventionality and he is the least pleasant character in it.
