The Fish Child

Main Ideas

• In "The Fish Child," Lucía Puenzo weaves a tale of forbidden love and flight, where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, and water becomes a symbol of purification and oblivion. Through the destinies of Lala and Guayi, the author explores themes of otherness, social isolation, and the search for one’s place in the world, contrasting the fragility of human emotion with the harshness of reality. Motifs of secrecy, guilt, and redemption run through the narrative, while the image of the fish child embodies a longing for lost innocence and the dream of freedom that cannot exist on land. Puenzo masterfully reveals her characters’ inner worlds, showing how love can overcome fear, though it cannot always save one from the consequences of choice.