‘Fish Out of Water’ Are ‘C’ (Character) Creatures

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Ten years ago, before I started this blog, I wrote a piece about characters who are “fish out of water.” Time to revisit that “fishional”…um…fictional topic by discussing some novels I’ve read since 2013 that are relevant to this theme.

As I noted back then, there’s often lots of drama and/or comedy when authors transport protagonists to a much different place. Those characters may initially “flounder” and have embarrassing moments — which is not good for them but interesting to read about. Then they might eventually get their bearings, experience new things, meet new people, and gain more confidence — which is good for them and also interesting to read about. Even if characters don’t adapt to new locales, there’s drama in that, too.

And readers — many of whom have been “fish out of water” themselves during vacations or after moving to new places — can compare their own real-life memories with the made-up situations depicted by authors.

Last week, I read John Grisham’s Gray Mountain, which tells the story of a young attorney at a big Manhattan law firm who unexpectedly ends up working at a legal-aid clinic in a small Virginia town. Samantha Kofer experiences culture shock far from her beloved New York City, but satisfaction as well practicing meaningful law for low-income clients. Samantha also finds herself in danger when she gets on the radar of Big Coal, which always plays hardball to keep the profits rolling in — whatever the cost to workers, to residents living near strip mines, and to the environment.

Another novel with a leaving-a-larger-population dynamic is Joyce Carol Oates’ Solstice, in which newly divorced Monica Jensen takes a job teaching in rural Pennsylvania — where she gets to know a rather interesting, problematic woman.

The opposite dynamic — small town to big city — probably happens more often in literature. One memorable example is when Denise Baudu moves to Paris in Emile Zola’s The Ladies’ Delight to work in a large department store. Another is when Molly Bolt, in Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle, leaves an anti-LGBTQIA+ environment in Florida (sound familiar? 😦 ) to move to New York City.

Immigrants/long-time visitors to other countries are very much “fish out of water” at first. So many novels with that motif: Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Isabel Allende’s Daughter of Fortune, Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, James Clavell’s Shogun, Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit, Wilkie Collins’ A Rogue’s Life, etc.

Being a “fish out of water” can of course be mostly positive. Such is the case with Anne Shirley of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, who leaves an orphanage to live with adult siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert in a house and rural area she finds bucolic — though obviously life isn’t perfect.

Science fiction certainly makes characters “fish out of water” as they might exit the Earth for other worlds or visit Earth from other worlds. So many examples, including the human colonizers of The Red Planet in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

Not surprisingly, time travel novels also offer major “fish out of water” experiences for characters visiting the past or future. Some books, including Jack Finney’s Time and Again, even give us both of that. Much of Finney’s novel is devoted to Simon Morley’s trips to 1880s New York City from the second half of the 20th century. Later, the woman Simon falls in love with — Julia Charbonneau — accompanies him back to HIS time in Manhattan. She is certainly shocked by all the cars, the less-modest clothing, TVs, and more.

Last but not least, animals can be “fish out of water,” too — without being sea creatures. 🙂 Jack London’s The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck the canine being yanked from “civilization” to become a sled dog in…the wild, while London’s novel White Fang features the opposite scenario: from the wild to “civilization” for its title character. That part-dog/part-wolf is as shocked as Julia Charbonneau when seeing a big city, in this case San Francisco.

Any examples of, or thoughts about, this week’s topic?

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column for Baristanet.com every Thursday. The latest piece — about a municipal budget and a misogynist township manager who seemingly can’t be gotten rid of — is here.

130 thoughts on “‘Fish Out of Water’ Are ‘C’ (Character) Creatures”

  1. Pingback: ‘Fish Out of Water’ Are ‘C’ (Character) Creatures | BLISSARENA

  3. This week’s theme reminds me of my recent encounter with “Night and Chaos” (1963), by Henry de Montherlant, a novel about Celestino Marcilla, a Spanish anarchist emigre in Paris after twenty years away from the home country and the last dregs and days of the Spanish Civil War. Marcilla is intensely, insistently Spanish in Paris, unadjusted to French, France and anything in his surroundings beyond certain newspapers and a few select spots in walking distance of his apartment.
    He vaguely fears the reprisal of immigration officials from his mostly unpublished articles, unaware that they are likely unaware of him or his creaky anachronistic anarchism– a fish out of his native waters, beached in a foreign land, and a fish out of his own times, but out of joint with the present.
    When he returns to Madrid to claim an inheritance, he surrounds himself with old ghosts and fears of his own making, incapable of seeing the city as it is, indifferent to him and his past, till death. He does not feel welcome anywhere he goes, to paraphrase an old blues lyric, because as per Heraclitus, ‘no man steps in the same river twice’. And no fish leaping out, when leaping back in.

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  4. All emigre tales are ‘f.o.o.w.’ All raw recruits baptized by fire in battle– ditto. All exotic traveler’s tales, including,of course, trips to distant planets and stars–also. All landlubbers who sign on to a ship’s crew, all country people come to town, all city dwellers who move to the country, as well. All children on first day of school, all brides and grooms on their wedding night (assuming, as one cannot always, chastity), all novices who would be nuns– I could go on and on, and possibly, further on. It’s a big category of tales.

    Which is why it’s such a good one for the blog!

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    • Thank you, jhNY! Yes, a theme with countless examples in MANY categories. I appreciate you naming a lot of them. Maybe a theme with more examples than almost any other I’ve written about. 🙂

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  5. I thought I was a fish out of water in Argentina until I moved to New Zealand. I realise that I’m actually a fish miles away from home. And I definitely feel like a character in a novel, less interesting maybe, but I’ve been trying to understand myself, writing in this language and learning to read more about other cultures as well.
    Very interesting what you write!

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    • Thank you, poetryinraindrops! You are impressively well traveled. And I agree with your excellent point that a real-life person adapting to a new place can feel like a character in fiction!

      (Before I met her, my American wife taught for two years in New Zealand and really enjoyed being in that country.)

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      • It is a magnificent country and its people are so friendly! It’s my first time abroad, I thought I was a more open-minded person, but the culture shock was huge. I am in the process of accepting my new place and my new me as well.
        I keep my old writing habits but I can not walk while reading because the ground here is too hilly!

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  6. Perhaps the most fish out of water character ever would be Mr. Limpet,the eponymous character of a 1942 novel by Theodore Pratt, “Mr Limpet”, but only in his ‘before’ state, ‘after’ which, he takes a dive into his desired habitat partway through this transformative and wartime patriotic tale.

    I admit I’ve only seen the Don Knotts’ 1964 movie, “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”, but I am confident, that whatever the changes twixt novel and movie, the major lines of plot and character remain, which briefly, are: a henpecked fellow loves fish and the sea so much that he is somehow transformed into a fish, meets a lady fish named Ladyfish, then begins his most important work– warning the US Navy re enemy subs, and sinking a few enemy vessels with a powerful blast of sound he learns to emit.

    Pretty sure this one is no kind of documentary.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! I would agree that you’ve described a character who could be considered the most “fish out of water” (or “fish IN the water”) character ever! 🙂 Don Knotts in this role was certainly a long way from “The Andy Griffith Show.”

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  7. What an interesting thought, Dave, to reflect on my own feelings when being in a completely new place. Well, as I have very much liked to travel it was also because I loved to get into contact of different people and cultures and so this side was more important for me than difficulties, which may have occured.
    As far as novels are concerned I thought to mention Jane Eyre and the moment she left her school and how she got to grips with her new situtation, but I have just seen that Roberta mentioned this already, so I could maybe hint at “Cat’s Eye” by Margaret Atwood and the moment when Elaine and her family came back to Toronto from the faraway places, where it took her some time to get really used to that different world.

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  8. Hi Dave, this ‘fish out of water’ concept is in a lot of novels as it is the feature of a book that creates the conflict situation the plot usually revolves around. Your commentary made me think about Jane Eyre when Rochester invites/forces her to attend his social gatherings and she is very uncomfortable and out of place. I suspect this was modelled of Charlotte’s own experiences and feelings. I always wondered whether the burning down of manor house and Rochester’s blindness and related dependency on Jane were the only way Charlotte would see in her writing to equalise this pair. Jane would never have fit into Rochester’s previous social circle and lifestyle. What do you think?

    Other books with this theme, Anne of Green Gables and the other series, Emily of New Moon. Emily also ends up living with wealthy relatives after growing up with her father. Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson, The Coral Island and The Lord of the Flies, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist (with Fagan and the Old Gentleman), David from I am David who had grown up in a concentration camp, Shawshank Redemption (as Liz mentioned), The Shining (isolated hotel), Misery (bedroom with the mad woman), A Gentleman in Moscow, previous servants quarters, Alice in Wonderland, all war books (I’m thinking of All Quiet on the Western Front specifically but they are all the same in this regard). Those are the ones off the top of my head – hehe! Oh, and I just thought of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights.

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    • Thank you, Robbie! SO many great examples of the “fish out of water” theme. Much appreciated!

      I totally agree with your thoughts on “Jane Eyre.” Jane did indeed feel out of place socializing among wealthy and “notable” people. Something Charlotte Bronte would herself experience after her novel made her famous and she met people like “Vanity Fair” author William Thackeray. And, yes, Rochester did have to get beaten down by circumstances for Jane to be more “equal” to him, though of course Jane WAS equal (actually, superior, morally and in other ways) to Rochester even when he was at the height of his powers.

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  9. Hi Dave, I haven’t read as much fiction as almost all the other commentators on your blog, but fish out of water type plots are sometimes found in fantasies. One example is C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” where four rather ordinary English children during World War II entered the magical Kingdom of Narnia from the back of an old wardrobe.

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    • Thank you, Anonymous! Great mention of fantasy and C.S. Lewis! Perhaps the most famous fantasy work of all — “The Lord of the Rings” by Lewis’ friend J.R.R. Tolkien — also has “fish out of water” elements.

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  10. I’m currently reading a book called “Wade in the Water” by Nyani Nkrumah. A definite fish out of water story, as it follows a young black girl in an all-black neighborhood in the South in the 1980s, and a white woman who comes to live there. The two become friends but I’m not sure what happens yet, as I’m only about half way through. It’s very good so far though!

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  13. A fascinating subject Dave. Just getting the time to properly read your wonderful blog–I skimmed it last last night– and some of the many fictional fishes in the wrong pond, mentioned by yourself and your readers. I say fascinating because you get these stories where the character is basically almost in another universe in terms of the way their life has just altered. Time travel stories especially. I mean regardless of what kind of personality you have you’d be floundering on the shore you’ve washed up on. Other times I wonder if it is just to do with traits that characters flounder in an unfamiliar situation. Bit obviously unless they do there’;s no story.

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    • Thank you, Shehanne! Interesting thoughts! You’re right that, depending on personality, some “fish out of water” characters flounder more than others. But you’re also right that some “fish out of water” situations would make almost anyone flounder at least to some degree — no matter how confident and adaptable they might be.

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    • Thank you, Arlene! Glad you’ve read a lot by various authors mentioned in the post! I also like Allende’s “The House of the Spirits” a lot, as well as Adichie’s “Half of a Yellow Sun.” And “The Thorn Birds” IS terrific! I finally read it a couple of years ago; very worth the wait.

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  15. How very well said, Dave: “And readers — many of whom have been “fish out of water” themselves during vacations or after moving to new places — can compare their own real-life memories with the made-up situations depicted by authors.”

    Those words reminded me of a novel that I read many, many years ago: Mrs Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman. Mrs Mike tells the story of a young woman named Katherine Mary O’Fallon who leaves her comfortable life in Boston to marry a Canadian Mountie named Mike Flannigan. The novel is set in the early 1900s and takes the reader on a journey through the rugged Canadian wilderness (British Columbia and Northern Alberta (Lesser Slave Lake). The authors portrayed the daunting challenges that Katherine Mary faces as she adapts to her new life in the wilderness, including the harsh weather, the isolation, and the cultural differences. The story is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and the characters are well-developed and seemed ready to me. What made it memorable for me was that I lived in the Canadian North so I knew the harsh conditions that were recorded in the novel. This is one of my favourite quotes:

    “You’ll see, you’ll come to understand. These big things, these terrible things, are not the important ones. If they were, how could one go on living? No, it is the small, little things that make up a day, that bring fullness and happiness to a life.” (I think this is where Sarah and I had the idea of adding ‘trivia’ to Tea, Toast)

    Years later I discovered that Mrs Mike, was based on a true story (fictionalized account) of Katherine Mary O’Fallon. Mrs Mike was initially serialized in the Atlantic Monthly and also appeared in the Literary Guild.

    Thank you for the prompting to remind Mrs. Mike. Another wonderful discussion about our favourite topic – books!!!

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! “Mrs. Mike” sounds really good; will look for it when I get past several other books currently in my possession. You described the novel and its background excellently! (Also, it’s relatively rare when a novel is co-authored.)

      Terrific quote! (As always. 🙂 ) Yes, the little things are in fact big things. And it’s great that the word “Trivia” is part of your podcast’s name!

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      • Another book you would enjoy, Robbie is Medicine Walk byCanadian First Nations author Richard Wagamese. The novel relates the journey of 16-year-old Franklin Starlight and his dying, alcoholic father Eldon Starlight to find a burial site for Eldon at a place deep in the forest he remembers fondly from his youth. I read Medicine Walk a few years ago when Richard Wagamese passed. This is the quota that I remembered: “She only nodded. “It’s all we are in the end. Our stories.” Richard Wagamese, Medicine Walk.

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  16. (1) Thank you for reminding me of my old favorite, Jack Finney and his time travel stories. You made me just go purchase two old Finney paperbacks. As a youth, I would send him time-warped news events. To my delight, he was very good at answering his fan mail.
    (2) But a related article popped up on the page, about authors writing from or about a different location, which puts them out of their home waters. Mystery writer Elizabeth George is one: an American who writes convincingly 100% British cozy mysteries. Not only that, her two starring characters, the elegant Deputy Chief Inspector Sir Thomas Lynley and his slovenly police partner Barbara Havers, are both anomalies in Law Enforcement land, and fish of a different color in their own respective worlds when they solve cases together.
    (3) And oh, could we have forgotten Tony Hillerman out there on the Rez with his sophisticated bi-cultural Navajos?
    (4) Now we come back to our recent favorite, B. Kingsolver: The Bean Trees and its sequel Pigs in Heaven are about two main characters who are both seriously out of their home waters. Highly recommended. I almost never read fiction, but when I do… certainly USA is a smorgasbord of cross-cultural stories. Love it.

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  18. I thoroughly enjoyed a paranormal book recently called “The Dead Romantics” (by Ashley Poston), and one of the characters is certainly a “fish out of water” because he finds himself to be dead and has trouble knowing how to function, rather caught between two worlds. This is a love story and sounds rather silly…but it’s really not. Very thought-provoking, I found!

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  19. I love this! Fish out of water is always such an amusing and often relatable character type. I suppose I had my own experience with this especially when I moved from Ontario to the Rockies … but more recently I’ve felt a little like that now that I’m back in Ontario after being out west. It’s more about the environment than the people, I think. I was on an almost obsessive search for evergreens.
    I thought your post had some amazing examples in literature and also in real world examples, like with immigrants or with animals, too. A tadpole transforming into a frog could feel like a fish out of water, too. 😛

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  20. It’s interesting to consider that common element in the books you and others have mentioned. It’s used almost like a literary device.

    At least until I came to expect the unexpected, Jack Ryan seemed like a fish out of water in Tom Clancy’s books although he adapted very fast. Along the same line, Jason Borne (I only read the first book) seems lost in his own identity.

    Thanks for another interesting view, Dave.

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    • Thank you, Dan! A “fish out of water” scenario is indeed almost like a literary device and, yes, some characters adapt faster than others.

      I’ve never read a Tom Clancy novel, but once heard him speak at some newspaper meeting I covered in the 1990s. All I remember is that he smoked a lot even as he addressed the attendees!

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      • For a while, I read his books as fast as he wrote them. I was traveling a lot, and they were great reads on a flight before WiFi and noise canceling headphones. Its funny, but smoking is an element that appears in his books and movies. I guess that’s a device that’s drifting out of the stories we read/watch.

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        • I agree, Dan, that certain books are great flight reads. Jack Reacher novels are among those for me. Ha — your “drifting out” quip. 🙂 I guess smoking “influenced” more than Tom Clancy’s health!

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  22. I’d also like to see your recommendation about books that feature fish IN water, which is to say characters who hardly notice and don’t appreciate the world in which they exist. I think, for instance, of those of us who historically have benefitted from white privilege without understanding our context or even noticing it.

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  24. Lulalmae Barnes to Holly Golightly–Breakfast At Tiffany’s; Pip–Great Expectations, Frankenstein the monster–Frankenstein and/or The Modern Prometheus; Lolita–Lolita, Randle Patrick Murphy–One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest; Blanche–A Streetcar Named Desire; Robinson Crusoe–Robinson Crusoe; Baudelaire orphans and Lemony Snicket–A Series Of Unfortunate Events. All these characters more or less victims of fate. So I’ll end here with a quote about fate by Lemony Snicket: “Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.” Great intro to this weeks theme, Thanks Dave. Susi

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  25. The fish out of water novel that immediately came to mind (and not in a good way) was William Kotzwinkle’s The Bear Went over the Mountain about a bear who steals a novel manuscript in the Maine woods and goes to NYC to seek his fame and fortune as an author. Initially, there was some funny skewering of the NYC literati, but the explicit interspecies sex was gross and the book’s conceit got old very fast. And then it just got stupid.

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! As a two-time immigrant, you’ve had double the “fish out of water” experiences of many. I hope, in retrospect, at least some of your gaffes turned out to be learning experiences — or, at minimum, good stories to tell.

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  27. Fish out of water Dave ?
    First I’ll write something in real life.
    Way back when decades ago I had a coworker from Iran. That time Iran was in Shah`s reign. The immigrant ladies were ultra morden, my friend wore mini-skirts, and smoked like a chimney. Married an American and her last name became Todd.

    I remember in some fast food place in KS, she ordered lunch. When done they called out her name ” Toad”.
    Looking at her non-white complexion, that was the name called out perhaps in confusion. .

    So who was the fish in the water I wondered.

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  28. Dave, have you ever read Christy, a novel by Catherine Marshall? Christy, from a well-to-do background, moves to the fictional town in backwoods Tennessee. A very compelling novel based somewhat on Marshall’s mother’s life. Christy was certainly a fish out of water as she learned to relate to these wonderful folksy characters.

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  29. Hi Dave, being a well-read person, you will agree that the protagonists of most novels worth reading have at least some of the fish out of water quality (a quality indeed!). To me, a poignant example is presented in The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag. It pitches the “Cavaliere” (William Hamilton) as a person of character, rationalism, and science, who finds himself displaced not just geographically (forcibly separated from his beloved Naples and Mount Vesuvius), but in his marriage, his relationships, if not in the essence of his being (fictionalized of course by the author), by the violence, the intrigue, the ruthlessness, and expansionist politics of mid to late 18th century ‘imperial’ Great Britain. And, yes, by his own monetary needs. A great and moving novel, one of Susan Sontag’s best, I think.

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    • Thank you, Dingenom! “The Volcano Lover” does sound fascinating from your great summary, and I’ll see if my local library has it during a future visit. William Hamilton is definitely dealing with a lot!

      And, yes, many memorable protagonists in memorable literature are indeed “fish out of water” to some extent. That sure increases the potential for drama, and more.

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  30. I have loved a number of your picks, Dave, including Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Shogun and The Thorn Birds were masterpieces! am very partial to time travel books, especially the inadvertent time travellers. I really loved The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and I would be terribly remiss if I didn’t mention Stephen King’s 11/22/63 which is simply awesome. Both are fish-out-of-water stories at their very best.

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