Response to "Take This Fish and Look at It"

In Scudder’s narrative essay, “Take This Fish and Look at It”, the main character was required to devote himself to the study of a fish, of which he lacked all interest, in order that he might learn a valuable lesson in observation. The average student would have surely given up, but I admire the diligence of the main character, who for days on end studied the carcass of this preserved fish. What strikes me now that it was not the fact that the character was particularly observant, but the fact that he spent so much time observing it! He was diligent, and refused to quit until he had made the key observation that the professor was seeking, and because of his refusal to give up he succeeded. I wonder if we as students and even Americans have lost that diligence that the main character of the essay had to learn. If I could devote myself to one single task, and apply my talents and academics undividedly, literally nothing would be impossible. The main character’s diligence in a subject that he did not intend to study must have paid off and translated more so to a branch of science that he did desire to study, and I would hope that the same could be said of our efforts, even if they are in areas we find obsolete or unimportant.