Cloudstreet
...sh Lamb it seems is the omniscient narrator of the novel. Spirituality is also important in Cloudstreet as it relates to the meaning of life and the exploration of community. We can see this in the opening lines of the novel "Shall we gather at the river Where bright angels feet have trod…." The overall feeling you arrive at after reading the prologue of the novel is how hymn-like the tone is. This kind of tone continues throughout the prologue, though the religiosity of Winton’s language is also profoundly secular in both its joyousness and relation to the concept of piety. However, the language evokes the bible in its rhythm and godliness, and another aspect is how biblical stories are more often than not noted for their relevance to everyday life. Such as this quote exemplifies found on page 151; "Those bible stories and words weren’t the kind you forgot. It was like they’d happened to you all along, that they were your own memories." Fish, as the novels narrator serves as the essence of spirituality. "Being Fish Lamb. Perfectly. Always. Everyplace. Me." Page 424. We can relate the name Fish, to the symbolic figure of a fish that Jesus used meaning peace and the name Lamb symbolically representing that we as lambs follow the herd as the lord is our shepherd. This ultimately conveying a duality of his name, in which we can associate many aspects of his character. In his visions we see guardian angels and of him being able to talk to their pig confirms the aspect of the otherworldly in life. We see water as the most symbolic force in Fish’ life, as water symbolises cleansing, a type of cleaning and a new way of seeing or thinking about something. It is in Fish’s heaven that we see his other-self and his desire to remember this world and too see it again. The spiritual ramifications of the novel’s prologue and epilogue scenes are unmistakably clear. In water as there is death, there is rebirth or life. This is shown in the marriage of Quick and Rose and the birth of Wax Harry. Creating harmony within the two families and symbolically meaning that in the death of one loved one – Fish, we see rebirth, harmony and the chance of a new life in both the child, Cloudstreet and between the two families. As a novel, Cloudstreet is tightly structured, opening and ending with a shared family picnic near water. This is a joyous occasion which, ironically is also the scene in which Fish’s long sought-after death by drowning. Through this act Fish, finally returns to himself and becomes one again. Fish’s time on earth it seems was dictated by his fate to join the two families, culminating the marriage of Quick Lamb and Rose Pickles and the birth of Cloudstreet’s son Wax Harry. The guilt Quick had always felt for his brothers drowning and witnessing it is expunged in his final act of sacrifice as he must watch as Fish reunites himself by throwing himself into the water. This event can be paralleled to guilt Judas Escariot felt towards Jesus after his betrayal. He must watch Fish, throwing himself into the water, knowing that it has been his one desire and dest...