18 pages • 36 minutes read
Grace Chua(Love Song, With Two Goldfish)
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Gender Theory
The notion of gender roles and gender stereotypes illuminate the goldfishes’ failed relationship in “(love song, with two goldfish).” The field of gender studies and its corresponding gender theories applies theoretical frameworks related to gender to the analysis of literature and other works of art. This critical lens examines how gender roles can impact characters, their relationships, and their behaviors as well as the reader’s experience.
In Chua’s poem, both the male and the female goldfish have reasons to want to escape the bowl and both goldfish must live with the reality of their confinement; the goldfish differ, however, in their reactions to their situations. The male goldfish ruminates on his situation and distracts himself with a fantasy about his female companion; when he and his female companion begin a relationship, he only imagines talking about “their deepest secrets” (Line 16) when they have escaped the bowl, but he does not talk with her about these secrets. Some typically masculine stereotypes depict men as the uncommunicative gender, especially when juxtaposed against the more stereotypically communicative female gender.
At the same time, the female goldfish uses her anthropomorphized sexuality to attract the male goldfish and to hold his interest. This stereotypical characterization of a female figure enhances the male stereotypes at play in the characterization of the male goldfish. When the female goldfish is unable to get what she wants from her lover, she leaves him. Within the context of the female fish’s role in the heterosexual relationship dynamic, the poet plays again with gender stereotypes around communication. Stereotypes do exist that depict uncommunicative men and flirtatious women, but as with all stereotypes, these details tell an incomplete story about individuals and their relationships. Both participants in the relationship have unrealistic expectations of love, which is very much a human tendency rather than a gendered one.
Eco-Historical Context
An exploration of Chua’s Singaporean identity offers the reader a satirical reading of “(love song, with two goldfish).” The city-state of Singapore, which has a global reputation as a leader in green architecture and urban planning, has a unique relationship with the natural environment (Kolczak, Amy. “This City Aims to Be the World's Greenest.” National Geographic, 28 Feb. 2017). In order to maximize its small land mass, the country’s developers have destroyed much of the flora and fauna of the island nation, and some believe Singapore’s commitment to eco-friendly building invites cynicism. When a reader factors these angles into “(love poem, with two goldfish),” the poem becomes a warning about the corrosive effects of urban living.
The poem begins as the male goldfish hopes the female goldfish will “take some notice, / give him the fish eyes” (Lines 3-6). He wants her attention, yet the early lines of the poem suggest that he is “always / floating around her” (Lines 1-2) because “he’s a drifter” (Line 1) with “nowhere else to go” (Line 3). His fishbowl environment is so limiting that his only option is to chase a relationship with the female goldfish, his only companion in captivity. The female goldfish, also “(Bounded by round walls” (Line 7) eventually gives him the “fish eyes / and kissy lips” (Lines 8-9). She flirts with the male goldfish and invests in a relationship with him because her environment means she must also live with limited options. They both dream of escaping the artificiality of their home, but the ocean remains out of their reach, driving the female goldfish to end their relationship and the male goldfish to drink away his sorrows “like a stone” (Line 21).
The artificial setting of the fishbowl forces the goldfish into a doomed relationship because they have no other options. The allegory of the failed relationship of the goldfish hints at the importance of environmental conservation when planning urban spaces, reframing the issue of environmental degradation as a human health issue.
