One repeating symbol in the novel is that of fish. The narrator tells an extended tale early in the book about the history of fish in the river and on the reservation, explaining that pollution from a factory upriver eliminated the fish populations. When the factory went out of business seven years before the events of the novel, local residents assumed the water would clear, but it never did. The narrator explains that “the white men from the fish department” tried to fix the problem by conducting tests and adding fish to the water, hoping they would repopulate the spoiled water, but nothing worked. The narrator claims, “the river ignored the fish and the fish ignored the river; they refused even to die there. They simply vanished” (4). Despite the detail and specificity with which the narrator describes these events, the presence of fish in the area repeatedly comes up in ways that contradict his knowledge.

One such conversation takes place in Malta on the day the narrator meets the barmaid and the airplane man. He talks at length with the other men about fishing in the area, with the strangers claiming to have caught many fish the day before.