About the story:
The story is about a male octopus trying to rescue his love, a female octopus, from the clutches of a fishmonger. The octopus couple is peacefully enjoying their time together when the fishmonger grabs after the female octopus to sell her as great cooking material. The male octopus starts panicking and tries to chase the fishmonger to rescue the female octopus. In the dangerous chase the fishmonger loses control of his car and falls into the sea. The octopuses are save because they were caught by a clothesline. At the end however, a seagull appears and takes away the male octopus.
About the six Literary Terms:
The story takes place on the streets of a Mediterranean country where octopus is often eaten. The male octopus tries to get his partner back from the fishmonger so here the main conflict is octopus vs. fishmonger, means animal vs. person. What confuses me is the seagull which is naturally an animal. So there is another conflict between the octopus and the seagull. (Person vs. animal vs. animal? )
Throughout the story, the wild chase of the fishmonger builds up tension until the climax where the fishmonger falls into the sea with his car. Now, the symbol of the story was not easy for me to determine. I think the octopus symbolizes life and the fishmonger and seagull symbolize obstacles in life.
When the octopuses think they are save and have overcome their obstacle (fishmonger), another new obstacle(seagull) appears. It starts all over again like a circle. Thus the theme of the story is that you can never know what will happen in life so be aware. In life you will continuously encounter obstacles.
The irony of the story is that the male octopus himself, after rescuing the female octopus, is caught by a seagull.
