Response to "Take This Fish and Look at It"

Scudder’s narrative was trying to point out that to be successful in life you have to pay close attention to the details. It’s much easier to observe the simple and the obvious but that’s not good enough. We have to be willing to work hard, study, and put time and effort into everything we do. Scudder illustrates this through the professor and his student. The professor after finding out the student’s desire to be an entomologist gives him a fish to study. The professor’s assignment seemed peculiar to me and the student since the student’s interest was to study insects. However, the purpose of the assignment had nothing to do with fish or insects. In the beginning, the student haphazardly quickly observed the fish putting little effort into the observation and the assignment from the professor. He thought he had seen everything there was to see and learn within ten minutes. Repeatedly the professor kept pushing the student to observe the fish more in depth, forcing him to observe the fish for three days straight. As time passed the student began to observe more and more details and information about the fish and he realized the lesson he had been taught. To be successful was not going to be quick and easy it was going to take time, dedication, determination, and attention to detail.