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Joe Bates
Fischer Smythe (known only as “Fish” for most of the novel) is one of Duncan’s roommates and a PhD student in the English department where Duncan studies. Fish is portrayed as rather clueless and unattractive. When Marian comes over to the house for dinner, for example, Fish spends the entire dinner droning on about phallic symbols in the novel Alice in Wonderland without even pausing to chew or swallow. Fish is kind and caring to Duncan (who affectionately calls Fish and their third roommate Trevor his “understudy mothers”), but he is also obsessed with finding female companionship. At Peter’s engagement party, Fish intervenes in the fight between Ainsley and Len Slank—and in short order proposes marriage to Ainsley. From that point forward, Ainsley and Marian refer to Fish only by his full name, Fischer Smythe, a shift that perhaps reflects Fish’s transition to a more conventional, normative lifestyle.
Fischer Smythe (Fish) Quotes in The Edible Woman
The The Edible Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Fischer Smythe (Fish) or refer to Fischer Smythe (Fish). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 30
Quotes
“Marian, what have you got there?” [Ainsley] walked over to see. “It's a woman—a woman made of cake!” She gave Marian a strange look.
Marian chewed and swallowed. “Have some,” she said, “it's really good. I made it this afternoon.”
Ainsley's mouth opened and closed, fishlike, as though she was trying to take down the full implication of what she saw. “Marian!” she exclaimed at last, with horror. “You're rejecting your femininity!”
[…] Marian looked back at her platter. The woman laid there, still smiling glassily, her legs gone. “Nonsense,” she said. “It's only a cake.” She plunged her fork into the carcass, neatly severing the body from the head.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31
Quotes
I had just begun on the windows when the phone rang. It was Duncan. I was surprised; I had more or less forgotten about him. […]
I was irritated with him for not wanting to discuss what I was going to do myself. Now that I was thinking of myself in the first-person singular again I found my own situation much more interesting than his.
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Fischer Smythe (Fish) Quotes in The Edible Woman
The The Edible Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Fischer Smythe (Fish) or refer to Fischer Smythe (Fish). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 30
Quotes
“Marian, what have you got there?” [Ainsley] walked over to see. “It's a woman—a woman made of cake!” She gave Marian a strange look.
Marian chewed and swallowed. “Have some,” she said, “it's really good. I made it this afternoon.”
Ainsley's mouth opened and closed, fishlike, as though she was trying to take down the full implication of what she saw. “Marian!” she exclaimed at last, with horror. “You're rejecting your femininity!”
[…] Marian looked back at her platter. The woman laid there, still smiling glassily, her legs gone. “Nonsense,” she said. “It's only a cake.” She plunged her fork into the carcass, neatly severing the body from the head.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31
Quotes
I had just begun on the windows when the phone rang. It was Duncan. I was surprised; I had more or less forgotten about him. […]
I was irritated with him for not wanting to discuss what I was going to do myself. Now that I was thinking of myself in the first-person singular again I found my own situation much more interesting than his.
