Analysis Of The Nick Adams Code Hero Hemingway

1095 Words3 Pages

Ernest Hemingway’s code hero can be defined as “a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." The Hemingway Code Hero embodies specific traits shown throughout the plot of a story. In the series of short stories “The Nick Adams Stories” by Ernest Hemingway, the protagonist Nick Adams, slowly begins to develop as a code hero throughout the transversal of the plot. Adams is able to demonstrate courage, honor, and stoicism, while tolerating the chaos and stress of his crazy world. In the first short story, called “Indian Camp”, Nick is a little boy, and he accompanies his father as he has to conduct a birth of a young Indian …show more content…

Coming home from the grueling experience of being a soldier in World War I, he felt ecstatic when he saw a trout swimming in the stream. The perils of war took a devastating toll on Nick, as he suffered from a physical wound while in action. The camping trip here is like an oasis, which will let Nick to recover from all the distress. “Nick looked down into the pool from the bridge. It was a hot day. A kingfisher flew up from the stream. It was a long time since Nick had looked into a stream and seen trout. They were very satisfactory...Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling.” (178) The healing process begins here with Nick re-acclimating himself with one of his favorite hobbies: fishing. “He started down to the stream, holding his rod...Nick felt awkward and professionally happy with all the equipment hanging from him...His mouth dry, his heart down...Holding the rod far out toward the uprooted tree and sloshing backward in the current, Nick worked the trout, plunging, the rod bending alive, out of the danger of the weeds into the open river. Holding the rod, pumping alive against the current, Nick brought the trout in...” (190,193,195) Nick finally reels in a trout after the big one got away, getting to the feeling of relaxation and washing away the horrors of war. By pitching his tent out in the forest and being able to function by himself so smoothly, Nick shows how he represents the trait of stoicism. He did not complain or stop living, coming back with the trauma of war. Going camping, he is able to relieve himself through using all the nature around him, showcasing his

Show More
Related

  • Indian Camp and Soldiers Home Young Women as Objects

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    *Paragraph Break*"Indian Camp" opens with an all-male convoy of rowboats heading across the lake, with young Nick, his doctor father and his Uncle George off to see an "Indian lady [who is] very sick." As they disembark on the other side and follow a young Indian bearing a lantern to the camp where childbirth is taking place, the men's guiding interest is not in the mother-to-be as a person, but in her physiology as a case study. When they find her screaming in bed, Nick's father dehumanizes her by saying: "[Her] screams are not important. I don't hear them because they are not important."

    Read More

  • Nick Adams as Code Hero of In Our Time

    1940 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to Professor Paul Totah of St. Ignatius, Hemingway defined the Code Hero as "a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." The Code Hero measures himself by how well they handle the difficult situations that life throws at him. In the end the Code Hero will lose because we are all mortal, but the true measure is how a person faces death. The Code Hero is typically an individualist and free-willed. Although he believes in the ideals of courage and honor he has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage and endurance. Qualities such as bravery, adventuresome and travel also define the Code Hero. A final trait of the Code Hero is his dislike of the dark. It symbolizes death and is a source of fear for him. The rite of manhood for the Code Hero is facing death. However, once he faces death bravely and becomes a man he must continue the struggle and constantly prove himself to retain his manhood (Totah).

    Read More

  • Analyzing Hemingway's Evolving Literary Style

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    other writers. He adds that the later novels seem more “mannered” and have less “impact” (p. 3). Comley and Scholes (1998) suggest that literary critics agreed that Hemingway’s style has undergone several changes. Cowley (1962, p. 46) argues that “by the early 1930’s Hemingway’s technique, apparently simple in the beginning, was becoming more elaborate”. Epstein (1982, p. 557) agrees that Hemingway was reduced to having produced only one good novel The Sun also Rises, some good short stories, and “the originator of once elegantly simple prose style that over the years dried up and flaked off in self-parody”. While Assadnassab (2005, p. 19) maintains that Hemingway uses “long plain words”, other critics such as Young (1966, p. 203) claim that Hemingway prefers to use short words.

    Read More

  • What Hemingway Leaves Out

    363 Words  | 1 Pages

    In this particular story, the reader knows some things about nicks past. Hemingway doesn't say it, but Nick is an experienced fisher. This is shown by nicks actions. In the boat, Nick knows that even though the trout are feeding, they won't strike. When the trout broke the surface of the water, Nike instinctively pulled hard on one oar to turn the bait towards them. He also tells Marge not to take the ventral fin out of the perch. These things are the actions of a truly great fisherman.

    Read More

  • Thoughts of War in Big Two Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the event with the fish Nick was tired from the rush and the happiness. Nick moved on to catch two other fish and cleans them to eat later. “Nick cleaned them, slitting them from the vent to the tip of the jaw. All the insides and the gills and tongue came out in one piece. They were both males; long gray-white strips of milt, smooth and clean. All the insides clean and compact, coming out all together. Nick tossed the offal ashore for the minks to find.” (Hemingway 1925) Throughout the cleaning Nick motions come out in different ways. When he cleaning the fish he realizes that his thoughts of unhappiness and being cleaned as well and as the days go on so will Nick and his motions with it.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway Essay

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the 20th century there were many influential pieces of literature that would not only tell a story or teach a lesson, but also let the reader into the author’s world. Allowing the reader to view both the positives and negatives in an author. Ernest Hemingway was one of these influential authors. Suffering through most of his life due to a disturbingly scarring childhood, he expresses his intense mental and emotional insecurities through subtle metaphors that bluntly show problems with commitment to women and proving his masculinity to others.

    Read More

  • What Is Francis Wilson A Hemingway Code Hero

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Wilson’s actions show that he has characteristics of a Hemingway Code Hero. Wilson proves that he is a lot better at hunting, compared to Francis Macomber, when they were going to kill a lion. He does not show that he is very emotional after Francis dies. He does not brag how good he is at hunting, compared to Francis. Wilson is a Hemingway Code Hero, based on the fact that he is skillful, can control his emotions, and is a man of action, not a talker.

    Read More

  • Sorrow Of Sorrow

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow of growing up, of sorrowful pretending, and even of life itself. The poem “Tips from My Father” depicts an episode of the life of a father and his son. The pain from the childhood, the betraying of a lover, countless secrets are settling during the period of life, which can absolutely not be shared and understood by others.

    Read More

  • Use of Point of View, Setting and Symbolism in The Swimmer, by John Cheever

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.

    Read More

  • The signifigance of Fishing in The Sun Also Rises

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    The fresh air of Burguete provides clarity of mind beyond the scope of the Parisian lifestyle and it is evident within Hemingway’s prose and style. Jake’s diligence and dedication to each of the steps involved in fishing are indicative of his separation from his life and the woes that constitute it. Throughout the novel, Jake has a shrewd, practical outlook on life that is omitted here. His focus and attentiveness reveal the sensitive, reflective man that Jake is, free of inhibition. His thoughts undulating like gentle waves, Jake uses worms for bait as opposed to a fly, so he can peacefully drop his line and contemplate life instead of concentrating on the constant casting and jerking inherent to fly fishing.

    Read More

  • Love and war

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nick Adams is a fictional character that Hemingway has made a sequence of short stories about. In the short story Now I Lay Me, Hemingway introduces us to Nick who is a soldier in WWI. We quickly learn that Nick is an insomniac and he is afraid of going to sleep at night because if he ever shut his eyes in the dark and let his self go “[His] soul would go out of [His] body”(276). The reason that Nick is afraid of going to sleep at night during the war is because he had been blown up at night and once felt his soul go out of him and then come back. Every night Nick attempts to disregard his fear of the war by staying awake and reminiscing about the trout stream he has once fished along as a boy, or sometimes he’d simply stay awake and say his prayers and pray...

    Read More

  • Frederick Henry Discovered

    1904 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hemingway’s code hero is portrayed in most every novel that Hemingway wrote. He takes his main character and makes him someone that is hard to change and even harder to make realize the situations around him. His code heroes are attractive, but not too attractive. They are very masculine and strong-minded. They stand for “what is right.” The code hero always believes in doing his job completely and putting it first, no matter what. Hemingway’s code hero consists of one very strong, willful man that is willing to do what he needs to do in order to get the job done. The main focus of Frederic Henry as a code hero is serving to his greatest extent in the war (Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 124).

    Read More

  • Plight of the Code Hero in the Works of Ernest Hemingway

    2458 Words  | 5 Pages

    In his novels Ernest Hemingway suggests a code of behavior for his characters to follow: one that demands courage in difficult situations, strength in the face of adversity, and grace under pressure.  Termed the "code hero," this character is driven by the principal ideals of honor, courage, and endurance in a life of stress, misfortune, and pain.  Despite the hero's fight against life in this violent and disorderly world, he is rarely the victor.  The code that the hero follows demands that he act honorably in this uphill battle and find fulfillment by becoming a man and proving his worth.  Hemingway himself lived his life trying to show how strong and unlimited he was, a trait reflected in his novels as his heroes struggle through.  They are all martyrs to their cause, suffering but triumphantly ending their lives because they do not falter and show no weakness.  Destroyed, they are nevertheless winners because they do not give in.  "Success is that old ABC -- ability, breaks, and courage" (Luckman n. pag.).

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Heroism By Ernest Hemingway

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    From an early age, Ernest Hemingway found himself obsessed with the subject of heroism. He looked up to his grandfather, who he saw as a hero, and sought to fulfill the war legacy left behind by joining the army. Hemingway was a participant in many wars, but one in particular shaped the rest of his life and his outlook on the world. It was during the end of World War I and Hemingway was serving the Italian army as an ambulance driver. During the battle at Fossalta di Piave, Hemingway circulated the trenches with chocolates, providing them to soldiers. Out of nowhere, an Austrian trench mortar shell exploded a few feet away from Hemingway, killing one man and wounding many others (Meyers, p.30). Hemingway was one of these wounded men. It was once said by Ted Brumback that Hemingway had acted heroically, for once he regained consciousness, he picked up a wounded man and carried him to the first aid dugout despite his own serious leg wounds (Meyers, p.30). Considered the turning point in his life, Hemingway had faced death but been called a “hero” as a result of it. Even though Hemingway’s obsession with heroism was still prevalent throughout his life, and this event on July 8, 1918, made its way into many of his novels, the heroes Hemingway wrote about never forsook glory or fortune. They were more concerned with the righting of wrongs and the longing of experience (Baker (2), p.129). In Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, the protagonist Frederic Henry is more obviously a form of Hemingway, but also a prime example of the heroes Hemingway liked to write about. Even though Henry faced danger, pain, and death throughout this wartime novel, none of it was glorified. Despite his obsession with heroism in war, while writing the novel...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Lost Generation By Ernest Hemingway

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    Strong author of the scale is the ability to literature passage are set separately from the context and the expression of all of the recipes or writing. When this happens, and integrated into the total work is a sign of true art. Ernest Hemingway, author of the lost generation, was one of the writers who have mastered the art of investment mastered to build a simple sentence with complex layers of meaning. Hemingway, who was a journalist in the early years of his career in writing and published in prose style or a short induction. He said the emotional depth and meaning conveyed minimalist text is great. And also try to develop a stream of consciousness by writers such as James Joyce and William

    Read More

More about Analysis Of The Nick Adams Code Hero Hemingway

Open Document