Finding Fish

Antwone Fisher’s autobiography constructs his identity by drawing connections between his memories. He begins from an extreme position, lacking a lineage and proper parental mirroring as an overlooked orphan. There are many pivotal moments in which Antwone finds himself amid long periods during which Antwone is both literally and metaphorically at sea regarding his self-concept. Following the archetypal narrative arc of the “everyman,” Antwone returns to his point of origin, where he knows himself for the first time: “I went full circle-starting my life at birth in a correctional facility and returning in my adulthood as a guard and observer, as if returning as a witness to the crime to better understand” (330).

While Antwone’s circumstances are largely adverse, they vacillate as his life unfolds. As he takes control of the narrative of his life, he presents himself differently. Antwone emerges with a sense of self that is less a passive response to his circumstances than an active engagement with the world. A large part of this autonomy comes from the act of writing. When Antwone tells Mrs. Brown at the orphanage that he’ll be famous one day, it becomes clear that his identity is constituted through writing, and that in writing this autobiography, he realizes his own somewhat Oedipal prophecy.