Love Song with Two Goldfish

PAPER NUMBER 1 EXAMPLE (A) Grace Chua’s poem, “(love song, with two goldfish)” describes a basic love story that yields no happy ending. In this “song”, male wants female, but the female wants more than what the male can provide. A difference in desires is established. Although the characters of this song are both goldfish, I believe this story represents and can act as a metaphor for numerous relationships in which a female feels trapped or closed in and the male that loves her if not capable of satisfying her desires. Through Grace Chua’s use of punctuation and hints of theme, the reader can sense why this “song” has no happy ending. It can be seen through the perceptions and desires of the characters involved. In this passage, I think the use of parenthesis have several meanings. Each of the meanings pertains to one of the two characters. My initial assumption was that the parenthesis supported the idea of the male fish’s shyness. Chua does not let the reader whether or not the male fish has told his love of all he would do. “He would take her to the ocean, they could count the waves.” By doing this, I receive the impression that his fish does not have a robust personality. Also, through phrases and sentences like “He wishes she would sing, not must just the scales; or take some notice,” and “swallows his charm hook, “ I see a timid male fish. By saying “take some notice”, it’s almost as if the female fish doesn’t know he exists. In addition, by the use of the work “hook” in the second phrase given, not only is he trying to catch her, but he also attempts to catch her at a distance. When casting a sinking line, the hook is very far from the fisher. When using parenthesis in the text, the words enclosed are normally just side notes not meant to be said aloud or not as important as the other text. Seeing that this poem is mostly the male fish’s thoughts through third person, I took the sue of parenthesis as the male fish’s thoughts that he felt