62 pages • 2 hours read
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The bluefish symbolizes Travis’s self-concept and his relationship with literacy, both of which shift throughout the novel. At Travis’s old school, he was in a special reading group called “bluefish” for kids who needed extra help. Consequently, he was bullied and called a “bluefish,” which was meant to make him feel stupid. Travis internalized the idea that he was stupid and became resistant to learning to read and to academics and school in general. At first, the bluefish is a very negative symbol for Travis because it reminds him of his perceived shortcomings and his belief that he’ll never overcome them.
At the end of the book, Travis’s new friends Velveeta and Bradley help him recast the bluefish into something positive. By this point, Travis has already made significant progress toward his goal of learning to read and has gained confidence in his own intelligence thanks to his teachers, friends, and self. Velveeta and Bradley feel like the bluefish is not stupid but is cool, nonconformist, creative, and interesting, albeit different from one fish, two fish, and redfish. This helps Travis overcome his aversion to the bluefish and overcome his belief that he is stupid or incapable. Instead, he embraces his identity as an intelligent individual who is nonetheless different from “normal” kids. As such, the bluefish symbology helps develop the themes of The Challenges and Transformative Power of Literacy and The Development of Friendship and Its Role in Personal Growth.
Velveeta’s scarves and Travis’s rabies tag are mementos that once belonged to loved ones who recently died. Velveeta’s scarves were gifted to her by her stand-in father figure, Calvin, and the rabies tag belonged to Travis’s dog Rosco. These items symbolize grief and how the connection between loved ones continues even after death. As Velveeta and Travis remark, keeping these items around does not bring their loved ones back to life or make them “less dead.” However, the items make them less “gone” because they remind the characters of their loved ones, as well as how they were influenced by those loved ones. Calvin helped Velveeta become a better person than she would have been without him, so when he dies, she worries that she’ll become a worse version of herself. However, the scarves remind her that Calvin’s death does not mean that his positive influence on her has been erased. Furthermore, the objects themselves are just symbols, and the continued connection to deceased loved ones is not dependent upon the survival of physical objects. When Velveeta loses all her scarves but one, this does not diminish Calvin’s influence—nothing can. Likewise, Travis’s loss of Rosco does not negate the years of bonding they shared or the fact that Rosco acted like a mother, father, and brother to Travis. The symbology of the scarves and rabies tag develops the theme of Coping with Loss and Family Trauma.
Eyes symbolize Travis and Velveeta’s self-perception, as well as how they believe others are perceiving them. As teenagers with tenuous family situations and few friends, both Travis and Velveeta have developed a fear of vulnerability and of being honest with others. They rarely talk about details of their personal lives with peers or their remaining family members and don’t like being “seen” (literally or metaphorically) by anyone. At the same time, once they meet each other, they almost crave being seen because they can tell that they each have the capacity to understand the other where others have failed to do so. At first, Travis feels like there are too many “eyes” in town watching him and that even houses have eyes. He’s afraid people in this new town he just moved to will find out he can’t read and will bully him like kids in his old town did. However, when he meets Velveeta, he craves to have her “eyes” on him because she “sees” him differently from how everyone else does. She sees him as he truly is rather than judging him based on one fact. For example, when Velveeta learns that Travis can’t read very well, she doesn’t think this makes him stupid. Instead, she’s impressed by how quickly he learns once he commits. She believes he’s more intelligent and interesting than most other kids she’s met. As Travis and Velveeta learn to trust each other, their fear of vulnerability dissipates, and their self-confidence and self-perception improve.