Ernest Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River

The opening lines of the book, give the audience an idea of how we are going to understand Nick’s descriptions of everything that happens throughout the novel. Nick presents himself as a wise, and intelligent young man. Over the course of the novel, we learn that Nick is not always the smart and “wise young man” he wants to be portrayed as. Nick sometimes comes across as snobby to the audience, and may have begun his narration with a childhood lesson, from his father, so that the audience would think that he is a nice, young gentleman, who loves his family.

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Hemingway was explaining that Nick was using this to help himself cope with things in life as an example of what Nick’s wants in life or self-realization. Hemingway writes later in the story when Nick sees the big trout in the river and decides not to go after it. Perhaps Nick sees it as the swamp is the misery in his life and the trout is the feeling way down deep that he does not want to obtain until he is ready. It seems that memories are the only hindrance that would keep him from getting closer to being fulfilled.

Nick is a World War I veteran who, as many veterans, suffers from emotional trauma that his experiences from the war left him with. Multiple scenes throughout the story, Big Two Hearted River, relates to Nick, the main character’s, journey toward recovery. Nick describes his surroundings in way that parallels to his own experiences and current voyage in respect to his revival.. He takes a calming adventure saturated with calming natural paths over hills, through woodland, and along a river to find peace with himself and to return to his prewar state of mind.

     In Hemingway’s collection of short stories, In Our Time, we follow a character by the name of Nick Adams. We are introduced to Nick in “Indian Camp” as a young boy, and follow him to adulthood in both Parts I and II of “Big Two-Hearted River”. Through this we see Nick develop and learn about some major facts of life. Nick is a character who changes through the effects of war on many different levels. Although Hemingway hardly mentions the war, he uses the stories to express different effects and emotions caused by the war.

The world of Ernest Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River” exists through the mostly unemotional eyes of the character Nick. Stemming from his reactions and the suppression of some of his feelings, the reader gets a sense of how Nick is living in a temporary escape from society and his troubles in life. Despite the disaster that befell the town of Seney, this tale remains one of an optimistic ideal because of the various themes of survival and the continuation of life. Although Seney itself is a wasteland, the pine plain and the campsite could easily be seen as an Eden, lush with life and ripe with the survival of nature.

The focus of this essay will be to analyze Nick's transition as he moves from mental isolation, to physical isolation, to maturation and self-discovery.

Nick presents himself in way that can persuade the readers that he is an honest, true individual in the beginning. He demonstrates that he is the innocent bystander who is simply just observing everyone around him, and describes himself as “one of the few most honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald 59). He is immensely charismatic and can make friends with almost everyone, therefore his narration can be described as unbiased and he seems to be merely telling the story as it is. He begins the novel as stating that “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I 've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people

The author uses Nick Carraway as the narrator of the story to describe the thoughts and feeling of Nick about everything he experiences for the purpose of contrasting his actions to his ideals.This stand, however controversial it may seem, is in total coherence with the whole story. Even though Nick constantly judges the actions of those around him, he chooses to involve himself with those he so greatly despise. For some people he may appear to be greatly tolerant, however he crosses the line between

Danny McFadden Doc O’Connor American Literature 18 December 2014 Mark Twain’s Views on Sexuality Huckleberry Finn accompanies Jim on an adventure down the Mississippi River in hopes to set him free up the Ohio River. During this adventure, they share intimate moments in which the inner spirit of these two very different perspectives on life converge. Throughout the story, Huck has to balance his place in society between accepted civil practices, such as: heterosexuality and male dominance, and personal acceptance on gender identity, and unequal civil systems. Gender identity defined as the person feeling of the appropriate gender the identify themselves with.

Scott Fitzgerald reveals Nick’s characterization through the very descriptive narrative voice using rich imagery. The author contrasts the very rich imagery with the fact that Nick is irrelevant to the plot. To create the sense of an environment which is full of emotions and very alive the author uses highly descriptive imagery. Nick is very aware of his surroundings and what’s going on, such as when he describes the atmosphere of a certain time of the day in which “All the lights were going on in West Egg now; the electric trains, men-carrying, were plunging home though the rain from New York. It was the hour of a profound human change, and excitement was generating on the air” (95) The author to emphasize how aware and observant Nick is frequently uses effective imagery. F. Scott Fitzgerald also puts across the excitement in the lives of the wealthy people during the 1920s by the powerful imagery in the narrative

“Big Two Hearted River”, a semi-autobiographical short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about the main character, Nick, returning to Big Two Hearted River in order to recover from his inner wounds. Nick Adams goes on a journey alone in nature for a therapeutic purpose as he suffers from PTSD. However, Hemingway purposely avoided any direct discussion regarding to Nick’s mental wounds. The absence of the discussion is contributed by Hemingway’s writing style, the Iceberg principle. Hemingway focuses explicitly on what occurs on the surface without mentioning actual theme. This indicates that the theme of self-healing cannot be uncovered by simply looking at the text itself. In order to comprehend the actual theme of the story, the character development of Nick must be examined. This is possible since Nick Adams is a recurring character of Hemingway’s stories. The two preceding stories of “Big Two Hearted River”, “Now I lay me” and “A Way you’ll Never Be”, directly discusses Nick’s suffering from shell-shock and how he comforts himself by returning to Big Two Hearted river in his mind. The two short stories will be analyzed and connected to “Big Two Hearted River” in the essay first. This will provide a strong understanding of Nick’s psyche and the reason behind his return to nature. Then, “Big Two Hearted River” the short story itself will be carefully analyzed.

Hemingway, to illustrate the theme of sovereignty, uses the character of Nick Adams. Nick is a character who has been injured in the war and, though his wound has healed over, Nick has yet to recover mentally from the attack. Hemingway’s portrayal of Nick is of a man who is trying to regain his identity. Hemingway depicts this through stream of consciousness and symbolism. The stream of

As one re-reads the story, it is evident that Hemingway has chosen this style for a particular reason.  Hemingway did not have Ole executed, because in doing so the reader would focus all the attention to his tragic death.  The murder does not occur, and the reader is forced to focus on the reaction of Nick, Sam and George, and the nonchalant attitude of "The Killers."  "One has to read it two or three times before he realizes that Nick Adams is the central figure" (Walcutt, 305).  The story can be broken into four scenes; first, "The Killers" are introduced; second, Nick warns Ole; third, Nick speaks to Mrs. Bell; fourth, Nick returns to the cafe.  Nick is the only character present in each scene, and in returning to the cafe his final statement to George is, "'I can't  stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it.  It's too damned awful."'  George replies, "'You better not think about it'"(Hemingway, 252).  It is obvious Nick is unwilling to accept defeat, and give up his delusion of a world without evil.  To maintain his delusion, he is willing to escape the reality that is presented to him.  "So, of the two boys, it is obviously Nick on whom the impression has been made.  George has managed to come to terms with the situation.  By this line of reasoning, it is Nick's story" (Brooks, 195).  Nick is the only character that evolves; Nick is a round character.  The other

The reader receives the impression that Nick’s self analysis of his own character tries to influence their opinion of him. Therefore the reader becomes inclined to question his judgements. Nick Carraway’s narration takes the reader into his confidence; he describes significant experiences in an almost voyeuristic way. Nicks narrative style uses elaborate and very mature vocabulary that gives extra depth and description to his account; drawing the reader further into the story. Additionally Nick’s tone creates a sense of authority and immediacy which encourages the reader to read on.