False teeth (symbol)
“False teeth” George is so concerned about is a symbol of growing old. According to him, “false teeth” are “a landmark.” He believes that when your “natural tooth goes, the time when you can kid yourself that you a Hollywood sheikh, is definitely at an end.” George is “fat as well as forty-five” and new false teeth in his mouth keep reminding him that he is not getting younger. “No woman,” he thinks, “will ever look twice” at him again. The truth is that the man is not even sure if he wants her to look at him now.
Fishing (allegory)
Fishing is allegory of speediness of time. George remembers his childhood, a relatively carefree period of time when fishing used to be his main passion. His best “fishing-memory” is about “some fish” that he has “never caught.” It often happens that our best dreams stay dreams, occupying a special place in a heart. Now he is a forty-five-year-old man, married to a woman he doesn’t love anymore, with two children, a cheap house, and a false teeth. The world starts losing its appeal gradually.
Fear (motif)
Fear is one of the main motifs of the story. People “swim” in “fear!” It is “our element” now. Everyone that isn’t “scared stiff of losing his job is scared stiff of war,” or “Fascism,” or “Communism,” or “something” else. George thinks that Jews are “sweating when they think of Hitler.” It crosses George’s mind that “that little bastard” has “a family to support too.” Who knows, maybe he is “meek and mild,” and is also scared stiff of his wife. Fear becomes the strongest feeling; it seems that it has conquered everyone.
