The Fish as Prisoners

This flow traces Darky Gardiner’s recognition of the fish tank as a miniature prison and the postwar act that turns his wish into a shared ritual.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Memory of the Shop

Fish Behind Glass Ordinary Outings Darky Gardiner remembers taking Edie to Nikitaris’s Fish Shop for fish and chips. They watched living fish circling in the shop’s tank. A Different Perspective At first the tank is simply part of a familiar outing. Later, under captivity, Darky sees the fish as prisoners waiting for someone else to decide their fate.

The Tank Becomes a Camp

Recognition in the Jungle A Prisoner’s Insight Darky Gardiner tells his companions that the fish in the shop tank were captive too. The thought makes him feel newly ill at the memory of animals unable to escape. A Mirror of Captivity His image connects the prisoners’ confinement to a familiar domestic scene. It does not make their situations identical, but it gives his own loss a form he can speak.

A Promise to Release Them

A Future Wish The Fish Set Free Darky Gardiner says that when he gets home he will free the fish from their tank, by buying them or taking them. His promise is both impossible and deeply sincere. Hope Under Pressure The wish gives him a reason to imagine a future beyond the camp. It also turns his care for small, confined lives into a measure of his own humanity.

The Promise Becomes Action

A Nighttime Rescue Breaking the Window Jimmy Bigelow and the other former prisoners break into Nikitaris’s Fish Shop and carry the fish in buckets to Constitution Dock. They fulfil Darky’s promise after his death. A Communal Gesture The act is illegal and absurd, but it gives the men a shared purpose. Their remembrance takes the form of doing something for living creatures who cannot free themselves.

Freedom Without Restoration

The Limits of the Gesture A Moment of Release The fish return to the water, and the former prisoners briefly feel that they have honoured their friend. The gesture cannot restore Darky Gardiner or undo the camp. Meaning in Action Its value lies in a small act of care rather than a grand solution. The fish motif links captivity, memory, and the desire to give another life its freedom.

Before the war, during Darky’s visits to Nikitaris’s Fish Shop

During a feverish march on the Dolly

During Darky’s illness, after he is rescued from the track

In postwar Hobart, when the former prisoners reunite

The night after the fish are released