Term Paper on "Finding Fish a Memoir by Fisher Antwone 2001"

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He learns some of his most valuable lessons from other children, and he learns about his parentage from one of his fellow foster children, who tells him, "She's not our mother. We got another mother, and it's not her'" (Fisher 55). Many of the adults in his life are not good role models, and his case workers really do not check on him much or seem to care, and so he has to make a lot of his own decisions and learn about life on his own. He makes some poor choices, like skipping school, but he also learns that he can depend on himself and learn from his own experiences and knowledge. One of the most important influences in his life was his teacher, Brenda Profit. He writes of her, "If self-esteem was what you used to fill up like a tank of gas, the Picketts had siphoned mine out to nothing. Mrs. Profit helped change all that" (Fisher 125). He needed someone to teach him he was a good and valuable person, so he could carry those qualities into his adult life, and Mrs. Profit was the teacher who could do it, and make a difference in his life. He continues, "It's the first time I've ever realized that there is something I can do to make things different for myself. Not just me, but anyone" (Fisher 127). In addition, as he grows older, Fisher develops a sense of humor that makes other people laugh, but also helps him cope with some of the difficulties of living with the Picketts. All of these qualities and characteristics will serve him as he grows older and learns more about himself and the world around him.

Clearly, another quality Fisher developed was introspection and shyness. They helped him cope in a world that did not understand him and did not care too. When someone like Mrs. Profit took an interest in him, he became less inhibited, but in situations like his home life, he retreated into himself because he was afraid and it was much easier to remain silent rather than speak up and risk punishment or ridicule. People looked at his shyness a variety of ways, and many people did not understand that it was depression and despair that helped add to his shyness. All of these things added together to make the adult Fisher, but it took time, self-awareness, and a positive attitude for them to all work and come together in a cohesive and mature adult. Fisher suffered, but he did not let his suffering create his entire life experience, like some of the other foster children did. He tried to make the best out of bad situations, and tried to maintain a positive attitude, even if he did not always understand that was what he was doing, or how it would help him in the future.

Obviously, each person has weaknesses they must overcome, and Antwone Fisher is no different. He had many weaknesses, including his excessive need for approval from others, especially adults. He felt the need for this approval even if he did not respect the adults, and it made him weaker and needy. He needed to learn that the approval of others was not something that would make him any happier, or any more successful. Later, this need for approval might serve him better in Hollywood, but it was still a weakness that allowed others to take advantage of him, and it did not help his early life at all.

Another weakness Fisher shows is his ability to become depressed and feel sorry for himself. There are times when he sees himself as a victim and cannot get over all the things that have happened to him. It is natural that he would feel this way, but it is not the kind of attitude that can help him in life. He can feel sorry for himself and feel like he is a victim in very bad circumstances, but that will not help him in the future, and it cannot make him a success. It can only make him unhappy and bitter. During his time in the children's home, he retreats further and further into himself, shutting himself off from the world and anyone who might care about him. Wallowing in self-pity is one of his biggest weaknesses, because he shut out people that really wanted to help him. It is easy to see that he was afraid to trust anyone because of his experience with the Picketts, but it was still the wrong way to react to the situation, and it made his life harder when it could have been easier.

However, Fisher had to overcome other obstacles in his life besides his own weaknesses. He had to overcome the cruelty and disinterest of his foster parents, the Picketts, and he had to overcome the knowledge that his real mother did not want him and could not care for him. He has to overcome physical and emotional violence, sexual abuse, along with the many other difficulties children face as they grow up. These experiences made him stronger and helped him become a successful adult, but they were also difficult, demanding, and had an effect on him that last throughout his life. As he discusses some of the abuses the Pickett family heaped on him, it is easy to see that he has not forgotten them, and may never forgive the Picketts for their abusive and unloving environment.

The author exhibits many strengths and many weaknesses, which is common in most people. Fisher needed approval from people, and that can become a real weakness in life, because you are always looking for approval outside yourself, when you need to look inside yourself to find true approval and happiness. It is easy to see why he coped this way and to relate to it personally. People cope with difficulties in their lives in different ways. Since Fisher did not have any role models, or even anyone who loved him, he had to develop his coping mechanisms on his own. This illustrates how smart he was, but also how perceptive he was, and that is also easy to relate to. His foster brother Dwight reacted by acting out and turning to a life of crime, while he himself "learned to be like an orange, something that you squeeze and squeeze only to separate the juice from the pulp, without taking away its basic substance" (Fisher 160). His experiences all made him stronger, and that is one of his greatest strengths, and the strength that is easiest to identify with and understand. It is amazing that he developed so many positive characteristics in such a negative and unloving environment, and that is something to admire in the man.

It is easy to understand Fisher's weaknesses, but really his biggest weakness was the environment he was raised in, and the cruelties the Picketts heaped on him. Mr. Pickett did not even know his name, and he never received any love or affection from the couple, he just helped them "pay their notes." They took advantage… READ MORE