Links and Connections

Fish Lamb aka Samson is the central figure of Cloudstreet. His name bears two distinct references to the Christian bible: Fish is the symbol o the early Christian Church while Samson is the name of the biblical figure whose strength lay in his hair and was betrayed by a women, Delilah. ultimately he killed himself in order to kill a large number of the Philistine enemy. The two characters can be likened if Oriel is juxtaposed with Delilah: Delilah led to the death of Samson, whereas Oriel brought Fish back from the dead and in doing so deprived him of his greatest desire, a wholeness of mind and spirit. Fish started out as a loved, smart character, easy to like, charismatic and quick witted. In an ironic turn of fate, Fish drowns and dies, but desperate not to lose her son, Oriel forces him back to life, although only half of him returns. This causes the split between the Spiritual Fish (the dead Fish) and the Physical Fish (the live Fish). The entire novel, minus the epilogue and first parts, is the retelling of physical Fish's life up until the moment when he is reunited with the water (death-heaven) and his spiritual self, when he finally becomes whole once again. He plays the piano in the Library, always hitting middle C, the note which the old lady's nose hit when she dies, it is that sound of the miserable, those people of the past, those who have died, and even the other characters can hear that ringing and although it makes them feel uncomfortable it brings comfort to Fish, comfort that he will join them one day, that he will no longer be stuck part way between life and deathCloudstreet: Clouds are what lie between us on earth and heaven. Fish by being stuck part way between heaven, is therefore stuck in the clouds, creating the link of this to the name of the street they live on, cloudstreet..

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