87 pages • 2 hours read
Lynda Mullaly HuntFish in a Tree
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Mind Movies and The Sketchbook of Impossible Things
In the beginning of Fish in a Tree, Ally describes her habit of creating “mind movies,” moving images “that seem so real that they carry me away inside of them. They are a relief from my real life (4)”. In stressful situations—such as the opening scene of the novel, wherein Ally’s teacher is trying to make her participate in a writing activity—Ally escapes from her anxiety by retreating into her imagination, watching cartoonish, often amusingly exaggerated “movie” versions of her life. Ally uses her Sketchbook of Impossible Things in a similar way, drawing scenes that reflect her day-to-day struggles in a humorous way. In addition to providing a refuge “from [her] real life,” the “mind movies” and Sketchbook of Impossible Things help Ally process her surroundings, giving her a quiet, creative outlet for her frustration (4).
As the book progresses and Ally grows in her confidence, she uses these coping strategies in different ways. For example, as Ally learns to play chess, she visualizes “a mind movie where chess pieces come to life” (163), and her visualization helps her acquire a new skill. Gradually, Ally’s coping mechanisms evolve into self-teaching (and self-affirmation) mechanisms that enhance her abilities. By the end of the book, Ally imagines a series of positive images, and her perspective has radically changed from the book’s opening:
A mind movie lights up in my head. Of our last name written in neon lights in the window of Travis’s new place. And there’s another mind movie. Of me being happy. Reading and making my art and finding a special Ally-shaped place in the world. But these mind movies won’t go into my Sketchbook of Impossible Things, because I know they will actually happen” (266).
Ally’s learning experiences have transformed her perspective so she now understands that she has the tools to make the “impossible” into the “possible.”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Ally identifies with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because “a book about living in a world where nothing makes sense made perfect sense to me” (19). Because her dyslexia makes words appear to float off the page, Ally has difficulty reading and making sense of words. In fact, she has only able to “read” Alice's Adventures in Wonderland through her wise and sympathetic grandfather, who read the stories to Ally out loud. Thus, Ally’s identification with Alice not only extends to the sense of alienation, strangeness, and frustration she experiences each day, but to her disorientation with words themselves. The book, however, takes on symbolic significance, signifying the hope that Ally will conquer her fear of reading and form connections with other books.
Similarly, the sense of wonder Alice experiences in exploring her unusual surroundings mirrors Ally’s process of self-discovery. Just as Alice's Adventures In Wonderland was designed as a peculiar educational primer for Alice Liddell, every new chapter of Fish in a Tree describes an adventure that teaches Ally more about herself.
Chess
In addition to being an homage to the chess game from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Mr. Daniels’ chess game with Ally serves an educational purpose. Because the game requires visual-spatial intelligence and the use of strategy, Ally is able to demonstrate (and effectively understand) the abilities she possesses because of her dyslexia.
Ally also imagines the chess pieces (and their unique capabilities) in terms of her own life and relationships. She metaphorically aligns Keisha with the bishop—“tall and powerful”—Albert with the king—“the piece with a ton of value but the one unable to move more than one space at a time”—and herself with the knight—a clever piece that has spent its whole life “jumping over things” (191). Thus, the game of chess helps Ally understand “the game of life,” allowing her to imagine strategies for facing her real-world problems.
Fish in a Tree
Mr. Daniels tells Ally, “a wise person once said, ‘Everyone is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that it’s stupid’” (159). This quote suggests that people can only recognize their own intelligence if they understand their abilities and adapt their learning around those abilities (rather than fruitlessly trying to learn in ways that their brains aren’t designed for).
This quote was originally said by Albert Einstein, whose teachers failed to understand him (and even presumed he was “dumb”). In a classroom activity, Mr. Daniels later explains that Einstein himself struggled with dyslexia but went on to achieve great things. Thus, these wise words empower Ally, helping her understand what she is capable of.
Related Titles
By Lynda Mullaly Hunt
