Essay Fish

Angel Benitez Felix

845-15-0870

Expository Essay

INGL 3221- L03

Prof. Helvia Guzman

To marry oneself is a very unusual decision. Although it is understandable why Oliver, the protagonist, made this decision it does not eliminate the fact this wasn’t the best decision to make for his life. This is evident as the story develops because we can see how this decision affected Oliver emotionally, financially and how it affected the relationship with his friends and family members in a negative way.

           Firstly the decision to marry himself affected Oliver emotionally by making him be more lonely than he was before. Even though he did not perceived it that way, it is showed as the story developed as he more and more started to desire to create a family and used excuses to cover that feeling saying it was the  “hormones” or “stage of life”. This loneliness even pushed him to commit “adultery” against himself, something that in his eyes was a taboo because it went against his religious beliefs. The decision even made it difficult to find a potential partner because those who knew about his “relationship” generally stayed away from him.

Marrying himself also affected Oliver financially, something that is somewhat ironical because he only spent money on himself. But this decision made him feel a false sense of liberty, confusing the liberty to do what he wanted to overall making bad decisions. We can see this when he decides to go on a “honeymoon” and wasted his whole life savings by gambling it in Las Vegas. Not only is this a bad decision but it justifies the fact that if  he had been married to another person it would have been different since as he says “nobody to nag me about how much money I was spending”, “nagging” in that situation is just a way of advising to not make stupid decisions.

Lastly, another way making the decision marrying himself affected Oliver negatively is on how it changed the relationship between him and his family and friends. His family members and friends tried to go with the decision of Oliver and support him, but from the inside they were not worthy to accept the fact that he wanted to marry himself thus damaging their relationships with one another. This may look like an act of selfishness from the side of the family members and friends but this is a way to show that even though they would support  him because he was an important person to them,  they were not accepting the decision that Oliver was making.

In conclusion, the decision that Oliver made of marrying himself was not well taken. It affected him negatively on the most important aspects of life and it only helped him discover that what he really wanted he wasn’t going to find by making this decision. He implied that he longed for a partner that he could trust and that he discovered that partner in himself, but I believed it just served as a reference to that he had to just keep looking for that partner in another person. It is not the same to be alone because you want to, to being alone because you cannot find the right person to being with.