Researching the Self

Upon reflection of this question, I realized the majority of my favorite books as a child had animals as their main characters. I have always been fascinated by animals, especially animals that could be found in my home, because of their unique ability to adapt to almost any situation. I chose to focus on Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister because I believe it is the book that was read to me most often before I went to sleep. Originally, my mother chose to read me Rainbow Fish because I had a pet goldfish that was silver and Rainbow Fish reminded me of him.

Rainbow Fish is about a blue fish living in the big ocean amongst other blue fish. Unlike the other blue fish, Rainbow Fish is unique because he has shinny, colorful scales. One day, another blue fish comes up to Rainbow Fish and asks Rainbow if he would be willing to give him one of his shinny scales. Rainbow tells the other fish NO and swims away. The other fish goes to his friends and tells them that Rainbow was not willing to share. They believe Rainbow is being mean and decide to ignore him. Rainbow Fish does not understand why the other fish are ignoring him and seeks advice from an octopus. The octopus explains to Rainbow about the importance of sharing and Rainbow ends up sharing his scales with the other fish. 

Rainbow Fish taught me the importance of sharing with others and showed me how respect is not guaranteed. In the beginning, Rainbow Fish thought he deserved to be respected because of his special scales. He soon realized that respect has to be earned, it is not guaranteed because of admiration; having an admired quality does not necessarily make you "more special" than others. Another lesson Rainbow Fish illustrated to me is that sharing can be beneficial to both the giver and the receiver.