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The Thing That She Carried
SD Video, Color, Sound
16:17
2003
flatfish [flat-fish]
noun, plural
any fish of the order Heterosomata (Pleuronectiformes), including the halibut, sole, flounder, etc., having a greatly compressed body and swimming on one side, with both eyes on the upper side in the adult.
Mother and Daughter go out and buy a flatfish. Daughter is disappointed after finding out that flatfish doesn’t get to have both eyes on one side until it becomes a "grown-up." She names the fish "Flatfish" and anxously awaits to see the pale side of the fish. Flatfish refuses to see only one side, and the eye migration never occurs; therefore it stays “immature.” Flatfish does not mind its own abnormal growth, but both Mother and Daughter start to feel tremendous pressure from what other people expect the fish to be. Mother (or Daughter) finally decides to adapt the fish to others’ expectations and forces the eye migration herself. Now she is about to see the pale side of the fish for the very first time.
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