Summary for the story In the Depth by Dal Stivens

 

In the Depth

-          Dal Stivens

In the Depths is a tragic story of a fisher community. A bright young mullet was talking to its friend (another mullet) in a giant cave on the sea bed. A large green fish entered the cave and swam up and down. It peered inside, while his tail fanned the sand on the sea bed. On the advice of the other mullet both of the them got into a servile quickly.

In the crevice the bright young mullet complained in a bad-tempered way that it was intolerable to 

skulk like this. They decided to put up a show of strength. At the same time, they thought they must

 have a rehearsal.

The large green fish was a vegetarian and was merely inquisitive. After he had peeked into the cave for a few more minutes he left the place shuffling up the sand with the flukes of his tail.

Stirred by the words of the bright young mullet they formed themselves into the frame of a giant fish. They were practising fearsome grunts in unison. At that time the large green fish came back to have another peep. He was so terrified that he cracked up several tons of sand with his tail as he fled. The large green fish was worried of its future. He approached a huge shark for help saying that there was a huge fish inside the cave who would mke a good meal for him. As the Shark was hungry, he ate up the big green fish with due apologies.

The following afternoon when he was hungry once again, he remembered the big fish in the cave and wanted to have a look at him. By this time the mullet had improved on their strength. By their yells, the Shark was terrified and as he fled, he buffeted so much sand into the cave so that the little fish were almost suffocated. The Shark in its unsharked state began to plan what he must do to be safe from this monster.

In the mean time the mullet set upon organising all the mullet in the neighbouring caves in the whole sea. They allied sea snakes, electric eels, the rays and various other lesser ones to simulate the shape of an even bigger fish. Talks were made with all the small fishes.

During their first combined rehearsal all the Sharks in all the seas attacked only a handful of mullet and other small fishes escaped. The bright young mullet perished. Most of the sharks also perished.

In the story the fish are portrayed with human qualities. Their reaction is similar to that of the human beings when confronted with danger. For instance, when the large green fish swims by the cave the mullet are so frightened by the needle like teeth and hot eyes and the amount of sand shuffled up by his tail that they decide the large green fish to be a fearsome predator while he is in fact a vegetarian.

Similarly, when the shark sees the “Fell Monster”, he fled away terrified without noticing that the little mullet is merely stimulating the shape of a large fish with fearsome glance. The mullet imagines the shuffled-up sand to be fearful weapons.

This is a reflection on the human behaviour when faced with an enemy human tend to panicked and jump into offensive even by the slightest fear of apparently effective weapons. They do not inquire into the real state of affairs. Staying cool and calm can bring total peace. Fear is one of the main causes of war in this world and they do not realise war will lead to anarchy and death.