The Aquatic uncle

I can't think of any very prominent symbols, at least by my definition. I understand that the outstanding feature of fishiness is mentioned a lot. But as far as one concrete representation of this fishiness I just don't see it in the story. If it's there it's definitely not obvious. I will say though that it's obvious that fish are looked down upon but that's more of a theme than a symbol. I mean I guess he's using the uncle as a symbol of the past generation judging the new but it doesn't work for me. People don't act like that, it's completely exaggerated. Fish are the old generation and swimming might be ignoring new traditions. But it seems like a weak symbol to me. I'll run with it though. The uncle not coming on land is a symbol of the older generation shunning the new developments. Let's say that it's technology. Those on land are the iPhone users and video game players and those in the water have phones with cords and are just starting to watch TV. The land people really want the sea person to get an iPhone so that keeping touch will be easier but the sea person refuses to. Land people are young and sea people are old people. This is the symbol.

I honestly did not connect with the story at all. I could see how the author was trying to make the reader connect by fitting the uncle to a predetermined stereotype. He's the one relative we all have who is stuck in the past. Except that I don't have that relative so my connection ends there. As far as the relationships in the story the large spread out family is also something I do not have. I can see how this might easily cause connection with someone who does though. I mean if I'm going to stretch this here, and I mean really stretch this, I can say that I connect to the main symbol of old not accepting new as it applies to my job. I make virtual environments yet some old people think I'm trying to be a master painter from the 15th century and so they don't understand how the computer helps. The 2D is the water and the 3D is the land, I'm using the future and my traditional art teacher is the past. I guess if I had a girlfriend who switched into fine arts I could say she went back into the water.

If I had to make this I would go with animation. I would have to make the characters like able and flesh out the relationships. Yeah there would need to be a lot of work done on the uncle especially. He's not endearing enough which is the only thing that would save his character. I mean in the book he just seems like a huge jerk. Also the fiancé too. I can have her go to water but she is definitely not marrying the old fish, that's just not going to sell, or if it does it'll be to the wrong crowd. I mean this is setup like a kids story but it finishes like a drama. It's just not cohesive and that's going to need to change. It needs to stick to one tone. For animation it'll need to be cutesy the whole way through, no old young marrying. No straight up prejudice, at least without some cushioning. Also their names need to change. You can't have characters with names you can't pronounce.