46 pages • 1-hour read
What Do Fish Have to Do With Anything?
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to suicidal ideation and attempted suicide.
Developing an Internal Moral Compass
One of the most prominent themes in the story collection involves the struggle to develop an internal moral compass despite the pressures of ethically questionable external pressures. In this vein, several characters wrestle with how they are seen by others, how they see themselves, and what it means to act with a sense of justice rather than self-interest.
Matt Kaizer’s arc is intimately connected with the ethical quandaries that all children must eventually overcome. Initially known as the “baddest of the bad” (21), Matt builds his identity around rebellion. His father is a reverend, so Matt’s defiance is both a rejection of his father’s authority and a way to gain status with mischievous peers who admire his pranks and dares. To his friends, being “bad” is a form of belonging. However, when Matt is confronted with the suffering of a dying man, Mr. Bataky, the boy’s identity begins to shift, especially when Mr. Bataky identifies Matt as a “good angel” (32). Matt’s own father accelerates his son’s transformation by daring him to “do goodness” (31). Suddenly, Matt must deal with conflicting external impulses and choose between succumbing to his peers’ pressure to misbehave or conforming to the adults’ expectation that he “do good.” The validation that he now receives for showing compassion forces him to reconsider what kind of person he wants to be. As a result, his internal compass develops in opposition to the group’s definition of “badness,” and that peer group collapses entirely. From this point onward, Matt must rely on his own judgment rather than seeking his friends’ approval.
Maria’s situation also highlights the struggle to define morality for oneself, as for her understanding of her runaway brother Brian differs greatly from her parents’ and her community’s dismissive and unflattering views of him. Because Maria remembers his moments of kindness and empathy, as well as his note that apologizes for “hurting [her] by going” (47), she sees his love as evidence that he is a much better person than most people believe him to be. By expressing her views to the mysterious caller and imagining it to be Brian, she finds a way to reconcile the contradictions between her worldview and that of her parents. For Maria, the act of continuing to reach out to her brother is itself a moral stance: She chooses connection and compassion even when the adults around her refuse to acknowledge his complexity. Ultimately, she learns a lesson that is similar to Matt Kaizer’s when her moral compass is guided by her own emotional truth rather than by external judgments. At the end of the story, she commits to her own moral principles by promising to help her new sibling communicate and connect.
Gregory also experiences pressure to define himself in accordance with irrational social expectations. As a smart new student, he quickly becomes a target for bullying, and when he participates in cruel behavior merely to gain acceptance, he risks losing his sense of right and wrong. However, when he is later confronted with a more complete picture of Mrs. Wessex’s humanity, empathy, and desire to prevent Gregory from “deny[ing] his intelligence” (70), his own sense of morality takes over. By resisting peer pressure to be cruel to his teacher, he establishes a stronger, more intuitive moral compass, and his struggle demonstrates how easily the need to belong can affect a young person’s values.
Parker, by contrast, represents the failure to embrace this internal development, for he uses his anger, resentment, and fear over his parents’ divorce as a justification for treating them both cruelly and manipulating them into doing what he wants them to do. Unlike Matt, Maria, or Gregory, he continues to find satisfaction in hurting others, especially his parents, because this stance allows him to indulge in the illusion that he is in full control of his life. Instead of honestly dealing with the emotional fallout of his family’s strife and dissolution, he renounces all empathy and allows his bitterness to drive his behavior. By the end of the story, his inability to align with the dictates of an inner moral compass leads only to further isolation and an emotional breakdown.
Across these stories, Avi consistently portrays young people as seekers who must constantly negotiate a viable path between external influences and inner convictions. Although each character reacts differently to the pressures that surround them, they must each choose whether they will allow cruelty, bitterness, and group pressure to define them, or whether they will use their own discernment to build a stronger, individualized sense of moral responsibility.
Overcoming Obstacles to Human Connection
Many characters in this story collection struggle with loneliness and isolation, and Avi makes it a point to develop young characters who attempt to bridge emotional distances only to find themselves hindered by silence, repression, or the unspoken fears of the adults around them. The result is a multifaceted examination of the very human search for connection: an impetus that preoccupies children and adults alike.
Willie exemplifies this theme in the opening story when he pushes back against his mother’s refusal to talk about his father’s abandonment or about the unhoused man outside their apartment. Willie longs for an explanation for the more inexplicable realities of life, and he seeks some recognition of the pain that he senses in both his mother and the stranger. When his questions go unanswered, he grows desperate for a connection that might help him to make sense of his isolation, and he engages with the unhoused man and experiences a moment of mutual connection. However, his mother’s decision to call the authorities and have the man removed gives rise to Willie’s intense moral outrage, and he likens his mother to a cave fish who have no eyes on account of “living in the dark” (11). This brutal metaphor condemns his mother’s worldview as unfeeling and callous, and he essentially accuses her of “swimming” through life blindly, unaware of the world beyond her figurative “cave” of grief, bitterness, and denial. The conflict between mother and son highlights the idea that grief and depression can cut people off from meaningful connection.
Maria also faces silence and disconnection at home because no one will talk about Brian, her runaway brother, and she has no outlet for processing her feelings about this issue. Abandoned in an emotional vacuum, she latches onto the mysterious phone calls and treats them as a lifeline even though she later learns that no one is on the other end. The irony of the story lies in the fact that Maria feels a stronger sense of connection to the static of an empty telemarketing call than she does to her parents, who determinedly withhold any sense of truth and closure from her. In her mind, her false connection with what she perceives to be Brian is preferable to the total absence of dialogue with her parents, and her confessions to thin air emphasize just how badly she needs acknowledgment and understanding.
While Maria’s plight is emotionally dire, Danny’s story takes the search for connection to the darkest possible place, for his isolation and despair have grown so profound that he contemplates suicide. His dramatic cry for help is manifested in his irrational decision to hand a gun to his cousin and ask for intervention. The dramatic scene shows both his desperation and his yearning for someone to perceive and alleviate his suffering. By transferring control of the situation to another person, Danny attempts to escape his deep isolation and bring someone else into his worldview before his suicidal ideation becomes a grim reality. Although his behavior is reckless, his indirect plea ultimately forces his family to confront his pain, creating the connection that he could not otherwise achieve. His tearful resolution with his family finally allows him to admit that he “didn’t want to do it” (102), and this life-saving connection was the hidden goal all along.
Eve’s story also reveals the dangers of isolation. She projects her longing for love and companionship onto her cats, embracing a caretaking role that becomes so intense that it endangers her physical health and well-being. When one of her pets dies, her grief and guilt overwhelm her to the point of making her physically ill. When her attempt to find connection through animals becomes twisted by superstition and fear, her anguish shows how fragile her need for belonging truly is. In Eve’s plight and in the other stories featured, the protagonists’ individual searches for connection are blocked not by the children’s unwillingness, but by the silence, repression, or absence of the adults around them. With these stories, Avi suggests that the human need for recognition and love is so strong that children will seek it out in whatever form they can find it—even if that connection is unhealthy, imagined, or self-destructive.
Empathy as an Antidote to Cruelty
As many of Avi’s stories suggest, empathy plays a crucial role in allowing people to resist cruelty and conflict. Again and again, the characters in this story collection are tempted to embrace meanness, mockery, or despair, but in almost every instance, their ability to see others with compassion becomes the decisive factor in how they grow and progress.
Matt Kaizer provides a central example of this dynamic when he gradually relinquishes his misbehavior and adopts a higher standard of conduct. Initially surrounded by peers who reward him for showing cruelty, Matt takes pride in being “bad” and embracing actions that harm others, even though his leadership of his friend group implies that he has the potential to turn his mind to better pursuits. When he is faced with Mr. Bataky’s suffering and must act as the arbiter of the man’s desperate hope for absolution, Matt is forced to reconnect to his sense of empathy. Instead of continuing to answer to his peers by participating in the joke that predicated his first visit, Matt begins to truly attend to Mr. Bataky. The truth of his inner shift is exemplified when he refuses his friends’ pressure to describe Mr. Bataky’s confessions and stolidly states that “angels can’t tell secrets” (33). This decision changes his reputation and radically alters his understanding of himself. In the end, his newfound empathy allows him to resist peer pressure and reorient his moral compass.
Willie shows empathy in a quieter way, but his stance is no less a matter of inner strength and will. While his mother insists on ignoring the unhoused man, Willie seeks to understand him and boldly asks questions to learn more about the grim realities of the adult world that his mother refuses to explain or fully acknowledge. As Willie compassionately recognizes the man’s humanity, his willingness to seek out bonds with others shows the true quality of his own empathic ability. Notably, when he asks the man for the source of unhappiness and takes his answer seriously, accepting that “what a person needs is always more than they say” (18), he undergoes a moment of significant emotional growth. Willie’s curiosity, when paired with his concern for his mother, suggests that true empathy requires the courage to acknowledge difficult truths that others would rather avoid.
Gregory’s experience with Mrs. Wessex also demonstrates this theme. At first, Gregory sees her as an obstacle and nearly succumbs to the peer pressure urging him to harm her. However, when he overhears her expressing her concerns for him, his perception shifts dramatically, and he recognizes that her strictness masks a deep concern for his well-being. His resulting show of empathy transforms their relationship and prevents him from engaging in cruelty. Similarly, Danny’s story shows that empathy can be a literal life-saving force. When Danny hands his cousin the gun, the narrator responds not with judgment but with understanding. By hiding the weapon and offering compassion, the narrator interrupts the cycle of despair and helps Danny to overcome his suicidal ideation. In this particular instance, empathy directly thwarts a young boy’s impulse toward self-destruction.
Together, these stories highlight empathy as the strongest counter to cruelty and conflict. Whether these dramas unfold in the form of playground pranks, family breakdowns, or life-and-death struggles, Avi shows that the ability to see another’s pain and respond with compassion is what allows his characters to endure their hardships, attain internal growth, and ameliorate the suffering of others.
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