Very well said by a movie character who was actually featuring as a witch with a glass eye in which one could see the way he was supposed to die. This witch happened to give the wisest advice to the central character of the movie who eventually turned out to be a story-teller, so much so, that the advice not only enabled him to channelize his determination and make something meaningful out of it in this materialistic world but also helped him identify the love of his life whom he won over through his unconquerable willpower and witty yet honest ways of trespassing the obstacles offered by fellow human beings. These fellow human beings are the ones who are of no worth other than to maintain the little importance endowed to them by the meager knowledge they possess that might assist somebody in attaining what they covet more than anything. And, hence they make a living by extracting a heavy price for extending their cooperation to the men who need it the most.
Coming back to our central character, he is our favorite story-teller, Edward, whom everybody likes for his fascinating ways of narrating the adventures of his life. Or should we say, who makes them sound interesting for the so called audience he loves by giving it a slight twist so that the ending of every incident is surely an unprecedented one, leave alone the entire trail.
But, apparently, there is always a fidelity test every good thing has to pass through before it is labeled as one, no matter how soulful or how true the person behind it or in this the fabricator is !
The person around whom Edward’s tales used to spin was his son, Will and as it turned out to be, it was Will who eventually grew up to believe that his father had been faking all life and that nothing of what he narrated could ever be true ! No matter how much his father tried to vouch for his honesty, Will would call him an iceberg whose only 10% he knew that too as on the surface and nothing about what he really was deep within.
So much so, that Will didn’t speak to Edward for a consistent period of three years on the account of feeling embarrassed by his father’s tell-tale habit every night, on every occasion and in front of every audience, without realizing that some occasions needed to be strictly reserved for the importance of the reason for which it was being celebrated. Neglected and disgusted, Will felt that he was only the ‘foot-note’ of Edward’s stories whereas the latter believed that he was actually the context of all his tales and at least the very much reason of his most favorite and life-changing important tale.
Nevertheless, Will himself was a writer and consistently pleaded to his crafty father to reveal his real self to his only son now that he was on death-bed. And, as Will himself was going to father a son, he didn’t want to loiter in the dark. Be it good, bad, success, failure, he yearned to know the real human being his father had embodied, hidden from the outer world, all his life, no matter how enticing and charming his tales seemed to them. But, Edward maintained his stand saying that he was what he seemed to be and it was not his time yet as he knew how he was going to die, the way he had seen in the witch’s eye.
Lurching with his quest to know his father in vain, Will was in the store-house amusing himself with the stuff his father had gathered in the course of the adventures life had offered him. And to his disbelief, he found a few things that stood testimony to the fact that the incidents his father always narrated to him, had actually happened. If not all, at least most of them. And this led Will to travel all the way to ‘Spectre’ that had been described by his father as the land of perfection. Not only did he end up being there but also met the person who had influenced Edward in the most unique way. As deciphered from the situation, he comprehended his father as a flirt, believing that there were a lot of facts he had hidden from Will and his mother. But, this lady at Spectre added a new dimension to Will’s beliefs when she revealed the fact that it was she who had turned out to be the ‘witch’ in wait of Edward and her unfulfilled love for him because Edward had been always loyal to his wife and he vouched of loving her till the day he died and saw no other woman.
This led Will to develop some respect for his father and he left to pay him a visit at the hospital. While sitting beside him in the still of the night, Will was suddenly awakened by Edward’s husky voice. Unable to figure out what he needed, Will offered him water. But, it wasn’t water. Edward was restless and requested Will to tell him the way he was supposed to die. But, poor Will said that his father had never narrated that story to him and didn’t know what to say. For the first time in life, he was feeling so helpless and sorry that he didn’t know his father’s stories well.
But, Will had no choice. Destiny seemed to have brought him to the toughest point in life, both as a son and as a writer. He decided to give it a try and narrated to his father how he would die, all full of adventures and improbable situations. Throughout his description, Will spun the threads of the story so well that his father could visualize all he was saying vividly and seemed to be in a different world. The story ended where it had embarked and featured Will carrying his father to the deep waters where he becomes ‘The Big Fish’ and goes deep down to the place he had always belonged, this time forever !
As Will finished, he realized it was the most beautiful piece of creation he had ever come up with and Edward seemed to have got wiped over with satiation. Convinced this is how it happens, he closes his eyes and leaves for the world of his immortal stories.
The funeral takes place and Will along with his wife are pleasantly perplexed to see different breeds of people attending it, The Giant who had once been a threat to the town of Ashton and whom Edward had counseled and taken along to the city where his talent could be recognized, The Ring Master who had hired the giant and helped Edward get the love of his life, his wife, The Siamese Twins who had helped Edward escape from a enemy camp during the wars in return of an idea for getting rich, The poet cum robber from Spectre who was inspired by Edward to travel all across the globe and establish an identity as a poet and later become a rich man, the Mayor of Ashton who had bid him farewell with the Giant thanking him for his kind deed with the note that the city doors would always be open for him and amongst many others, The Witch !
Contrary to the usual funerals, all the people present there were talking and laughing aloud on the tales Edward had always narrated to them. He lived in the hearts of so many of them as a socially likeable man who made people happy.
And like this, the stories passed on for generations. Truly said, some stories are told so many times and over so many ages that the narrator of the stories himself becomes a story and lives on forever !
Edward too lived on as The Big Fish whom none was able to catch !
