I think that Pesca is a really interesting character, who I would like to explore more. Pesca is a fun character to read about, but I find what he symbolizes irritating. Collins is using Pesca to be the embodiment of English elitism. He is constantly trying to be \u201cmore English\u201d. This idea that foreigners want to be more like the English is a Victorian ideal that reinforces imperialism. Pesca wanted to try everything there was to be as close to an Englishman as possible: \u201cThe ruling idea of his life appeared to be, that he was bound to show his gratitude to the country which had afforded him an asylum and a means of subsistence, by doing his utmost to turn himself into an Englishamn\u201d (Collins 11). He goes so far as to try to swim even though he does not know how. Walt is then put in the positon to save him. This image of an Englishman saving a foreigner was all too common an excuse for imperialism during the time. Of course the foreigner is ever grateful to the merciful Englishman for saving his life.<\/p>\n
Looking at the chain of events more closely, however, it should be noted that had Pesca not been trying to be English he would not have been drowning in the first place. In trying to be English, Pesca placed himself in harm\u2019s way. Had Pesca been participating in activities that he was familiar with he would not have needed help. The Englishman only becomes the \u201csavior\u201d after, he has impressed the very thing that is putting people in danger.<\/p>\n
Pesca is amusing to read, but he is a complete caricature. I think that he is portrayed in a very degrading way. I do not think Pesca is doing anything wrong, it is more the way people talk to him that is degrading. Ms. Hartright talks down to him and never takes him seriously, while Sarah is out right cold to him. Both forms of treatment are due to Pesca not being English. His poor treatment bothers me because Pesca is such a pleasant character so it is annoying to read about people treating him poorly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think that Pesca is a really interesting character, who I would like to explore more. Pesca is a fun character to read about, but I find what he symbolizes irritating. Collins is using Pesca to be the embodiment of English elitism. He is constantly trying to be \u201cmore English\u201d. This idea that foreigners want … Continue reading Making a Fish English<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,111423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-fall-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}