Dupuis: Big Fish

Edward and Carl

Tim Burton merges the sunny character of Edward Bloom with the darker grotesque characters of the film by using humor. When Edward meets Carl, the giant, the first thing Ed says to the giant is that he is here, before the giant, as a human sacrifice. This is obviously a joke and brings humor to the fact that Ed is standing in front of someone that could crush him if he wanted to. But instead of eating him, Ed tells the giant that he is just too big for this small town and convinces him to go in search for bigger and better things. Edward likes these darker grotesque characters like Carl because they, like Edward, need something more from life. On their search of bigger things, Ed and Carl come across a circus, which brings Ed to another unusual character, the circus owner, Amos Calloway, who happens to be a werewolf. As Ed stands before the werewolf that could eat him any minute, Ed picks up a stick and throws it into the forest, causing the werewolf to go chasing after it like a house dog. This aspect of humor again brings light to this dark scene. Amos Calloway sees Ed as a hard-working man and respects that about him. Ed views Amos Calloway as a man-to-his-word which he also respects about him. People are drawn to people with similar aspects of their life, which Burton shows in Big Fish. Edward is on a search for his life, which brings him on the same path as the giant and the werewolf. The giant is always too big for everything, until he finds the circus, where he fits in perfectly. The werewolf just needs someone to play with, which Edward provides when he plays fetch with him. Everyone is one the search for something, which they may not know until they find it. Edward is on the search for love, he realizes this when he sees his wife for the first time. He did not know he was on the search for love until he saw her. After that, he did everything he could just to get closer and closer to her, including shoveling elephant poop.