Analysis Of The Nick Adams Code Hero Hemingway

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

woman’s baby. This is the first instance where Nick is exposed to death. “He pulled back the blanket from the Indian’s head. His hand came away wet. He mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with the lamp in one hand and looked in. The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk. His head rested on his left arm. The open razor lay, edge up, in the blankets.”(20) The father of the young Indian woman’s baby, due to the overwhelming situation, could not handle it and killed himself. Nick as a child here is exposed to his first taste of death, and his response shows how he embodies courageousness, a trait of the Hemingway Code Hero. “In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.” A Code Hero is still human, but their courage when facing death shows the true measure on how they will never back down in the face of mortality.
Secondly, the next short story which is titled “The Killers”, Nick’s honor shines bright in an unexpected hostage situation at a small diner in Chicago. Two men named Max and Al, dressed in all black, arrive to carry out with the murder they were hired for. “I’ll tell you,” Max said. “We’re going to kill a Swede. Do you know a big swede named Ole Anderson?” (62) The man who is being targeted, Ole Anderson, goes to the diner every day in the evening for dinner. Nick, the owner of the diner, and the cook are forced to carry out the orders of the assassins to insure they get their job done. But, Ole Anderson had a chance to escape, as he did not come to the diner at his usual time. “Listen,” George said to Nick. “You better go see Ole Anderson.” (66) Here, Nick is showing how he is honorable, by going to Ole Anderson’s house to warn him about the men coming to kill him. “...They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper.” Ole Anderson looked at the wall and did not say anything… “There isn't anything I can do about it,” Ole Anderson said.” (67) Nick was doing the right thing here, as he risked his life to warn a man who was already comfortable with his fate. Even though Ole Anderson accepted the fact that he was going to die, Nick shows another trait of the Code Hero by doing an ethical act which not every person would do.
Next, due to a culmination of disillusionment and emotional stress, “Big Two-Hearted River” shows how Nick embodies the trait of stoicism by going on a camping trip.

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

endurance.
However, Adams was not born with the traits of the Hemingway code hero. As a child, Nick is relatively scared at first, being alone in the camp away from his father and Uncle George. “His father and uncle had gone off across the lake after supper to fish with a jack light. Before they shoved the boat out his father told him if any emergency came up while they were gone he was to fire three shots with the rifle and they would come right back.” (13) Nick was afraid of the woods in the night, and while he was trying to take his mind off it, he thought of a church hymn. “...Some day the silver cord will break.” While they were singing the hymn Nick had realized that some day he must die. It made him feel quite sick. It was the first time he had ever realized that he himself would have to die sometime.” (14) Death has made him wonder, and the realization shocked him to his core. The development as a code hero is not there in the beginning for him, but he slowly starts to show his qualities as the stories continue.