Fish on Land

In the song “A Fish on Land,” Lhasa De Sela uses the symbols and archetypes of water, fish, and breathing to express the theme of life struggle. According to Anthony Stevens, “fish are water creatures, they are gifts of the Great Mother as well as a symbolic content of the collective unconscious” (337). A fish gasping for air suggests struggling to live: “And he could breathe again and then he grew and he became a man” (Sela, par.3). A fish on land can die but if “dropped him in water and he could breathe again” (Sela, par. 3).