# Chapter XI: The History of the Seven Young Fishes explained — Nonsense Books

> Chapter companion for Nonsense Books by Edward Lear.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

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