Stanley Njoku

Essay #2
Eng. 395
August 23, 2010.

'The River Runs Through It'

There is nothing as significant as religion and tradition. These two forces are
powerful and can bring families together. Norman Macleans novel, 'A River
Runs Through It, is a story of MacLean's family who share a deep devotion to
their Presbyterian religion and their tradition of fly-fishing. The tale makes it
clear that Norman and Pauls father has strict Presbyterian values while at
the same time fly-fishing is also an integral activity that links the family
together. Paul, who continues the route and develops a skill towards flyingfish, continues to have a personal and spiritual connection with nature. There
is a saying that goes "habit is a second nature." This family creates a habit
that leads them to develop a tradition towards fly-fishing. With any
experience, there is a connection between spirit and nature. Anything that is
beyond our imagination can be referred to as a spirit. Devoting time doing
anything can connect us with the spirit behind what we endeavor.
MacLean familys hobby of fly-fishing was started just as a regular activity. It
was a behavior that was taken up every Sunday after church and used as a
means to eradicate worries. After a while, going fly-fishing every Sunday
turned into a tradition and soon also became a learning experience for the
father and his two sons. This activity brought the family together and
became one of the main configurations in their lives.
It is important to focus on the metaphor behind the flying-fish. First, one
must perceive the ocean. The ocean covers about 60-70% of the earth
according the NASA O CEANOGRAPHY ,
Looking at our Earth from space, it is obvious that we live on a water planet. Ocean covers over
70% of the Earth's surface and contains about 97% of the Earth's surface water. Life in the
oceans can be found from the surface to the extreme environments at the bottom of the deepest
submarine trench. It is not surprising that the oceans represent over 99% of the living space on

Earth...we are indeed living on what is truly an ocean planet.

Finding a passion in flying-fish, you are definitely connecting spiritually to

abundant nature. There is a divine connection that the entire family has from
father to children, leading to the ultimate understanding and skill developed
by Paul. It would difficult to draw a distinction between nature and spirit
because they both are beyond our imagination. On the other hand, if the
entire family is transcendentalist, it might be possible to grasp this. One can
define the transcendentalists as people who, "were loosely bound together
by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the
essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of humankind, and the
supremacy of vision over logic and experience for the revelation of the
deepest truths" according to The American Heritage Dictionary.
There is another metaphor behind the sport every Sunday after church. As
the father is a well dedicated affiliate to the Presbyterian values, he chooses
flying-fishing as routine that both he and the children should participant to
fulfill a family tradition and come together. What inspires this desire of
fulfillment? The passion and the spiritual connection the entire family has
towards fly-fishing is something that fulfills this family tradition.

Conclusion
In the story, fly-fishong shifts from being just a regular activity to a family
tradition. The Presbyterian values probably get stronger through a family
tradition as people will share some other aspects of who they are during the
fly-fishing. The connection with the ocean is a spiritual connection with the
abundant life on earth. Finding and pursuing a passion for a family tradition
has lead to a stronger bond and greatness that Paul derives from flying-fish.