Eddy Changes Gus By Their First Encounter example essay topic

Gus's Motivation James Duncan's book entitled, The River Why, focuses around the main character, Gus, and how he changes throughout the book. In this book Gus is discovering what life really is and that the whole world does not revolve around fishing. After moving out of his erratic house he spends all of his time fishing at his remote cabin, but this leaves him unhappy and a little insane. He embarks on a search for him self and for his own beliefs. Duncan changes Gus throughout the book, making Gus realize that there are more important things to life than fishing, and these things can lead to a happy fulfilled life, which in turn will help Gus enjoy life and fishing more. Duncan introduces a character, Eddy, who significantly changes Gus's views on what he needs in his life and she gives Gus a sense of motivation or inspiration.

Eddy changes Gus by their first encounter with each other, when Eddy instills in Gus a need to fulfill his life and when they meet up again, completing his need. Fishing is Gus's first passion but he loses it after he puts all of himself into it, and when Eddy comes into his picture Gus feels a need to have more in his life, like love. Through finding love he re-finds his passion for fishing and learns more about himself. When Eddy and Gus finally get together, he sees this "equilibrium" between his old passion, fishing, and his new one, Eddy. Duncan's use of Eddy gives Gus a new found sense of purpose and to have a more fulfilled life is a critical step in Gus's development as a character. This is why Eddy is the most important character to this book, because she gives Gus inspiration to find himself.

On their first encounter with one another Gus is compelled by her differences in dress, techniques and gear. After she leaves, Gus feels a "need" to fulfill his empty life. Finally when she shows back up in his life, Gus then has everything he could ever ask for: a beautiful woman who loves to fish, just like him. He explains how he first sees Eddy on page 151 as: "A barefoot girl. A full-grown one. One who wore the top tenth or so of what had long ago been a pair of blue jeans.

One who wore a short, skin-tight, sleeveless sky-colored t-shirt through... which revealed the shape of the... ". After sneaking his way up to the tree where she sat "motionless", not noticing Gus, his attention is diverted, if not completely, towards her odd pole and gear. Lying to himself as he checked out this "research project" Gus notices how her gear and technique was like nothing he had seen or used before, but his mind never fully wondered from Eddy as seen on page 151". Her fishing equipment was innovative also; she appeared to have no creel or equipage or container of any kind apart form her pole and line and whatever was on the end of it. There was the possibility of a few spare hooks or leaders in the pockets of the fraction of blue jeans... but the theory grew tenuous...

As to the possibility of fishing tackle concealed with in the sky-colored t-shirt, this was even less likely. Nevertheless I considered the problem long and carefully, scanning every least curve of the thin material, reluctant to give up the search". While Gus is checking her style out he realizes that Eddy was important in someway and that he needed to learn from her. He describes his sudden thirst for knowledge about Eddy as follows on page 150: "She must be an extraordinary person, well worth watching, well worth meeting, well worth thinking about, an exceptional fisherman, and I was, what I was, I was learning, yes learning: I was learning like crazy. I'd never learned so much so fast before... ".

Watching Eddy fish, Gus absorbs a lot of information that before was totally unseen to him. Not only about fishing, but about this woman and about himself, needing to learn from her. He says on page 152 "I felt for the first time that I was in the presence of a fishing genius exceeding my own". He is enthralled by her fishing abilities and when she stripes naked to dive after the fish she snagged, Gus is completely spellbound. Gus feels stunned by Eddy and temporarily goes retarded. He follows Eddy while she is getting her fish and when Eddy notices Gus there she freezes.

Not knowing what to do about some guy coming up to her after her nude dive and mumbling "What muck. I mean let, or, um... ". and "Me gog peach ins pediment. M-m-my I just a". (156) Gus, feeling like a complete fool, dives deep into the river and tries to block it all out, but eventually gets out and runs away from his scene of complete stupidity.

Gus climbs a tree after cutting up his legs running in the brush, and to Gus relieve Eddy was still on her rock. Gus feels compelled by Eddy to talk to her, to get to know her, and just to do something, so he gets his courage to talk with the captivating Eddy. (157) As they conversed, Gus begins to fall back on his old way of talking, because the speech he had used was incoherent. Gus begins reciting Izaak Walton and the more Eddy smiled at him the more courage he got. Something in Gus's heart compelled him to learn more about this new found passion.

When Eddy tries to leave Gus asks her to not go, and when she asks why not, he replies from a passage from one of Izaak Walton books: "No life, honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the life of a well-governed angler!" (158). As they conversed Gus was finally getting somewhere Eddy gets a bite on her line and dives after it. Gus has a moment of insanity and falls down the tree after her, and when she takes off he runs after her, trying to catch her. When he get to his truck he floors it to find her, honking to pull over some confused stranger, who was not Eddy. (160) Gus has an overwhelming feeling that he can not lose her and says on page 161 "If she got away before I found out something more about her...

I'd never see her again!" This prospect scared Gus because Eddy had given him something and he needed her to complete it. He needed something more in life, and he had a sense of needing someone else in his life to love. He stayed in that very tree waiting for her, but she never showed up again. Gus did find her fishing rod though and kept it.

Gus then goes into a short of depression after he 'loses' Eddy and the next day he speaks with the River Why about it on page 163:" ... This isn't a good morning" "WHY" "Because I will never see her again " Gus realizes after his encounter with Eddy and after talking to the river, that the river gave no answers only questions. He yells at the river after it replies why to his answer on page 163 saying: "I don't know, dammit! And I don't know why she ran away or why I had to see her at all when I'll never see her again, or why she smiled but ran, or laughed but ran, or talked to me but ran, or asked my name but ran, but God she was beautiful, and she fished like, like, like Thomas and Ma and H 20 and Piscator put together, and I think I might go crazy if I never see her again". He goes on to answer the question 'why', from a friend's mouth, this time, and says he loves her.

This is the point in Gus's life where he is in love but has no idea of what to do about it. After a while he tries to get over his whole ordeal with Eddy and then a talk with Titus about his encounter with the beautiful woman, sets him off again. Titus gives him some philosophical books to help Gus sort out this problem and gives Gus some helpful words of encouragement. Titus explains to Gus on page 168 "She knows your name; she knows your river; she might guess you have her pole and fish; she might come to t get them". Gus tries to fulfill his life with these books and the new friends he has meet along the way, but he can not get Eddy off of his mind. Even when he goes to visit his parents at home and Bill Bob questions Gus about what he has been doing, Gus lets Eddy's name slip.

Bill Bob gave Gus encouragement of seeing Eddy by his questions and his mouse story of hope. Gus states on page 195: .".. that if a mouse could sing I just might see Eddy again". Along his journeys to fulfill his life, Gus comes across a writer for a newspaper article and made up a story to the over zealous, unskilled fisherman. In the end of the article he put a note to Eddy, trying to reach out to her, on page 217: "Will the girl who ran form the guy who recited Izaak Walton I the tree please contact Gus on the other river he named. He has your rod and fish and wants to return them. He is totally harmless, but urges you to bring a loaded fun if frightened, as long as you come.

Thank you". Through out his waiting and searching for Eddy, Gus changes dramatically. He feels the need for his live to be fulfilled, and he strives for it by doing new things. He acquires a new load of friends and things from swapping, but he was sad for those who did not have what he could have and. ".. also because I had so much to share, but nobody to share it with". (221) Then Gus goes into making her a rod like her old one, but with improvements. Like a 14 foot pole, belly reel with a waist strap and some good line in it.

It was for the hope to see Eddy once again and this time he was striving to make a good impression on Eddy. Then one day, on a walk back from a Halloween party he finally gets what he has been waiting for. Gus describes the incident on page 259: "Keeping to the shadows, I shook my head, drew a deep breath and looked again: she was really there! It was Eddy it was Eddy, alone in my cabin, waiting for me". This is what Gus had been striving for, is to see her and get to know her.

Gus had completely changed because of his first meeting with Eddy and the thought of never seeing her again. Then all of the sudden she was there and he felt great, but was nervous because he had been working so hard to impress her. He knows though, that he must be more forward and more of himself than before. After making some small talk you notice that Eddy is also a little unsure about Gus, because she brings a squirt gun, and is kind of guarded in her actions. They talk and both open up to each other. Gus asks her about their first meeting with each other and she told him what really happened on page 262: "I never ran away, I was barefoot; I'd been camped just upstream for three days; I wanted my pole and fish back; so I just hid in the woods".

... "You were a mess!" ... "The sort that shivers and sweats and sighs and talks to himself, curses himself, groans to himself. The sort that says 'Eddy, Eddy, Eddy' over and over and over". Gus then starts to bring himself out and shows it to her by explaining his thoughts on that first encounter.

He explains to her that he could not help but fall for her, with her stunning looks and way of fishing. The way she looked at things, did things and thought about the world intrigues Gus. He explains how he did not know what was right or polite and how helpless he felt at their first meeting. Gus also explains to Eddy how her honest beauty was captivating and he could help how he acted. Eddy starts to realize that Gus is not some weirdo jerk, and that his life was interesting and worth learning about after hearing stories of Gus the great fisherman.

Eddy sees more in Gus than she thought she would, so she decides to come back the next day to talk. The next day she gives Gus a plan that he must follow of catching a fish with her techniques. He finds his equilibrium on page 274 "Equilibrium derived from a kind of inner balance: it transmitted itself from the soul to the mind, and from the mind to the body, and when a man possessed of it put his hand to an art or craft he was capable of unheard of feats". Gus's equilibrium was his love for Eddy and he states on the same page "Why shouldn't love be my Equilibrium?

Why shouldn't love be the forceless force running through the wound and into the fish? Couldn't love create that sacred balance? Wouldn't love dissolve all stress?" Eddy also changes as person because she stays longer and longer with Gus, doing all sorts of things together, eventually marrying Gus. They both find their equilibrium in each other. Gus re-finds his fishing passion through Eddy, but looks on everything in a whole different way. Eddy gave Gus motivation to know himself and he fulfills the emptiness.

He got the two loves of his life: fishing and Eddy.