Nonsense Books · Chapter
Chapter XI: The History of the Seven Young Fishes explained
The seven young Fishes swim across Lake Pipple-Popple into the river and ocean, where they encounter a bright-blue Boss-Woss.
What happens
The seven young Fishes swim across Lake Pipple-Popple into the river and ocean, where they encounter a bright-blue Boss-Woss. They chase it into a deep mud hole, become trapped, and suffocate, meeting their end.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Loss
The seven young Fishes die by suffocation in the mud, a sudden and final end to their journey.
Adventure and Exploration
The fishes travel across the lake, river, and ocean before their fatal encounter.
Characters to notice
- The Fishes
The seven young Fishes who chase the Boss-Woss into the mud and suffocate.
- The Boss-Woss
The bright-blue Boss-Woss that leads the fishes into the mud.
Key passages
“The seven young Fishes swam across the Lake Pipple-Popple, and into the river, and into the ocean; where, most unhappily for them, they saw, on the fifteenth day of their travels, a bright-blue Boss-Woss, and instantly swam after him.”
On the fifteenth day of their journey, the seven young Fishes spotted a bright-blue Boss-Woss and immediately chased it.
Describes the pivotal moment that leads to their demise.
“And the seven young Fishes, swimming with great and uncomfortable velocity, plunged also into the mud quite against their will, and, not being accustomed to it, were all suffocated in a very short period.”
The fishes, swimming fast and unwillingly, dove into the mud and suffocated because they were not used to it.
Details the cause of death for the seven young Fishes.