Throughout “The Fish”, by Elizabeth Bishop, the speaker describes catching a fish with vulgar and disgusting words and goes into detail about the flaws of the fish, boat, etc.  Then one sentence later the speaker describes these same objects with beauty and elegance.  The speaker is realizing that there is multiple ways that one can look at the same scenario.   In “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop, the speaker realizes that the deeper you look at things in life, the more your will appreciate its beauty.  The speaker describes objects in the poem with an initial disgust but proceeds to describe the same object with beauty that hadn’t been noticed before, which causes the speaker to realize the different ways he can perceive everything he encounters in everyday life.  

When the speaker first caught the fish he was distraught that there was no effort by the fish to fight back.  He described the fish as “a grunting weight, / battered and venerable / and lonely” (lines 7-9).  The fish was basically dead just hanging on to the speaker’s line with absolutely no fight.  His initial reaction was disgust that he basically caught a dead fish and the fun part of fishing is the fight so it was disappointing for the fish to not have any fight for the speaker.  However, as the speaker took a closer look at the fish and realized that he was an old fish that just didn’t have the effort to fight anymore.  He then realizes the fish was hanging there 

...like ancient wallpaper, 

and its pattern of darker brown 

 was like wallpaper: 

 shapes like full-blown roses 

 stained and lost through age (11-15).  

He now knows that even though the fish may have just been hanging there, the fish has been aged through time and actually looks elegant like brownish wallpaper that changes shades.  He no longer looked at the fish like a dead weight but now looked at it as a piece of beauty he was holding on his line.  The speaker realized that this fish can be looked at positively and something he should be proud to catch rather than thinking negatively as something he just happened to snag on his line.

After the speaker has seen the beauty of the colors of the fish, he then realized what was in his mouth.  In the fish’s mouth “hung five old pieces of fish line…with all their five big hooks / grown firmly in his mouth” (51-55).  The speaker initially perceives these hooks and lines as just some old trash that must’ve stuck to him while fishing.  He didn’t realize what those hooks meant to the fish until he took a closer look and realized that the hooks were like “medals with their ribbons / frayed and wavering” (61-62).  The speaker realized that these hooks were signs of the fish’s past.  This fish used to be “the one that got away” and was a prize catch back in its prime.  This made the speaker appreciate the catch a lot more and now knows why the fish didn’t fight. The fish was just tired of all its fights in the past and didn’t have the energy for this one.  Before he had taken a closer look, he seemingly wanted nothing to do with the fish and now he has gained so much respect for the fish that he is glad to have caught it.

Furthermore, when the “victory filled up the little rented boat”, it was more than just excitement for catching a fish.  He realized that he doesn’t just have to think this way just when catching fish, but all the time in his everyday life.  He then saw the oil leaking out of his boat and described it as a “rainbow” (69).  He is appreciating everything he looks at now and is seeing past his initial thought of seeing it as something negative. After the speaker “let the fish go” (76), he was letting go of his negative way of thinking and was inviting a new way of looking at things into his life.  Elizabeth Bishop didn’t just want the speaker to realize this insightful way of thinking but the readers as well.  If people took the time to appreciate what they’re looking at rather than to have a preconception of whoever they meet and see, they will start to appreciate beauty where it would normally not exist and will all enjoy of victory of their own.
