Ambais Yellow Fish | An Analytical Study

Ambais Yellow Fish | An Analytical Study

Ambais Yellow Fish | An Analytical Study

Ambais Yellow Fish | An Analytical Study

Yellow Fish’ is a metaphorical short story by Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi) written on the theme of a woman’s craving for liberation from male supremacy.

For a better understanding of the story, it may be divided into three sections, though the author has presented her story without dividing it into sections.

The first section bears a vivid and realistic description of a seashore long with fishermen catching fish. It was a Summer evening. The sand of the shore felt hot. Away to the left of the shrunken sea and spent waves, the sand spread like a desert. The fishermen were returning from their fishing hunt.  One among the fishing boats had arrived on the shore. Its colour was white and floated like a swan, swaying from side to side. The fisherwomen were ready to welcome the boats. They were wearing saris of various colours as blinding indigo, domestic red, profound green, assaulting blue. They stood vibrant against the white boat upon a faded blue and ash-grey sea.

One by one all the fishing boats arrived at the shore. The boats were replete with fish. The fishermen spread their nets and began sorting the fishes. The fishes seemed to splash into plastic troughs. Their round eyes looked to be wide open. The unwanted fishes were thrown away. Among the unwanted fishes, there was a yellow fish. It was also thrown away on the sand. It had some black spots. As the narrator stooped to watch the yellow fish, it began to shudder and leap. The mouth gaped and closed and tossed about on the hot sand.  Seeing the yellow fish, the memory of Jalaja, came to the narrator’s mind.

With the mention of the name of ‘Jalaja’, the second section of the story has begun. Here we come to know that the narrator of the story is a woman named Anu. She is present with her husband Arun on the seashore. Jalaja was their girl-child who died as an infant. The opening and closing of the mouth of the yellow fish reminded Jalaja who also did the same to survive. Because of some physical defect, Jalaja was put in an incubator. Her mouth was red but pale to look at. Her eyes were round like that of the yellow fish. Sometimes she seemed to open and close her mouth as if it was sucking. But she did not survive. She died. Her ashes, after the cremation, were put into an urn. Its narrow mouth was tied with a piece of cloth.

Then Anu, the mother of Jalaja asked her husband  Arun to open the mouth of the urn as she wanted to see the ashes within. The conversation between the two reads like this:

‘Why is the mouth closed?’

‘What mouth?’

‘The mouth of the urn. Open it.’ 

‘Anu, it contains only ashes.’

‘I want to see. Open it.’

‘Anu it contains only ashes.’

‘ I want to see. Open it.’

‘Open the mouth.’

Saying so Anu broke into sobbing. Eventually, the cloth of the urn was removed to reveal the urn’s tiny mouth.

After this, the third section of the story begins. In this section, we see that yellow fish is tossing about on the hot sand of the seashore. A fisherboy was on his way home back from splashing in the waves. When he came near Anu, she asked him, ”Will you throw this yellow fish back into the sea?”

With a quick snort of laughter, he grabbed the fish firmly by its tail and started running towards the sea. The narrator (Anu) ran after him. The boy placed the yellow fish on the crest of an incoming wave. For a moment it spluttered helplessly, like a drunkard who could not find the way home. Again it opened its mouth to the water, taking it in. It swished its tail and swam forward and merged into the blue-grey-white of the sea. 0 0 0

Ambais Yellow Fish | An Analytical Study

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N. B. This article entitled ‘Ambais’ Short Story ‘Yellow Fish’ An Analytical Study’ originally belongs to the book ‘World Short Story Criticism‘ by Menonim Menonimus. Ambais Yellow Fish | An Analytical Study

Books of Literary Criticism by M. Menonimus:

1. World Short Story Criticism
2. World Poetry Criticism
3. World Drama Criticism
4. World Novel Criticism
5. World Essay Criticism
6. Indian English Poetry Criticism
7. Indian English Poets and Poetry Chief Features
8. Emily Dickinson’s Poetry-A Thematic Study
9. Walt Whitman’s Poetry-A Thematic Study
10. Critical Essays on English Poetry
11. Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Novel: Return of the Spirit-An Analytical Study
12. Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Novel: ‘Yawmiyyat Naib Fil Arayaf’-An Analytical Study
13. Analytical Studies of Some Arabic Short Stories
14. A Brief History of Arabic Literature: Pre-Islamic Period …