Infinite interpretations plague Ernest Hemingway’s “Cross Country Snow.” From the belief that Nick is “reluctant to take on the responsibilities and restrictions of fatherhood” and that “the descriptions of skiing… describe the act of making love” (Edenfield) to the argument that the Swiss woodcutters symbolize Nick’s desire to avoid paying for his mistakes (Pfeiffer and Konig), no two scholars can seem to agree. However, I believe that “Cross Country Snow” illustrates Nick’s desire for freedom and eventual acceptance of parental duties, and his forfeiting the life he wants. Notably, Nick’s passion for skiing portrays his desire for freedom throughout the story. Hemingway’s concise prose and lack of unnecessary detail is infamous, and forces the reader to examine all included details for a greater meaning. Therefor, his decision to spend the first third of this story expounding on Nick’s skiing must serve a greater purpose. The vivid descriptions of skiing plucking “Nick’s mind out” and leaving him “only the wonderful feeling of flying, dropping sensation in his body” (Hemingway 108) symbolize Nick’s mental freedom. He can forget the …show more content…
Even in their young teenage romance, Marjorie and Nick struggle with the inherent differences of their sexes. While Marjorie vividly recalls and reminisces on “the old mill” that “seems more like a castle” (Hemingway 32), Nick can barely remember it, and quickly dismisses her poetic observations. Marjorie remains enamored with the past, the brief moments when they found happiness, while Nick simply sees the “white limestone ruins” of their relationship. While Marjorie would willingly fight for their future together, Nick doesn’t think it’s “fun anymore.” He doesn’t understand his feelings, something Marjorie won’t accept, as all she wants is a fairy-tale love, and Nick is alone and broken hearted, laying “down with his face in the
Archibald Lampman’s “Winter Evening” and P.K. Page’s “Stories of Snow” both initially describe winter to be delicate and blissful, yet, as one delves deeper into the poem, it is revealed that the speakers believe winter to be harsh and forceful. Archibald Lampman’s “Winter Evening,” starts describing an evening
Hemingway’s narrative technique, then, is characterized by a curt style that emphasizes objectivity through highly selected details, flat and neutral diction, and simple declarative sentences capable of ironic understatements; by naturalistic presentation of actions and facts, with no attempt of any kind by the author to influence the reader; by heavy reliance on dramatic dialogue of clipped, scrappy forms for building plot and character; and by a sense of connection between some different stories so that a general understanding of all is indispensable to a better understanding of each. He thus makes the surface details suggest rather than tell everything they have to tell, hence the strength of his “iceberg.” His short stories, accordingly, deserve the reader’s second or even third reading.
In the nineteenth century, following the devastating American Civil War, author John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a lengthy poem designed to solve both personal and national problems. Whittier hoped that his poetry could stitch together the festering wounds left by the Civil War. While composing his work, Whittier realized that a reminder of good times from the past would assist his fragile country in its reconstruction; his poem “Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl” became the vehicle through which he achieved this goal. In particular, Whittier focuses in “Snow-Bound” on addressing his life in context, as well as on the issue of how the lessons of his youth apply to his country. He describes his early life, the issues of his family and memories, the contributions of nature to his literature, and, finally, his hope for the poem’s readers, which causes a fascinating response. Together, these attributes forever molded the United States as a nation.
There is a never ending list of what makes some people amazing story tellers. Some writers have vast imaginations, other writers use the lives of others in their stories and other writers use their lived experiences in order to write moving works of art. Most books, works of poetry and short stories that revolve around lived experiences share a common theme of love, hate or both. As these are emotions that all humans share, However, there are some stories that have far more unique. Stories like “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. Both O’Brien and Hemingway come from two completely separate walks of life but were both able to write stories using the same theme of emotional and physical
Ernest Hemingway was an intricate and dedicated writer who devoted a significant portion of his life to writing multiple genres of stories. Throughout his stories, the similarities in his style and technique are easily noted and identified. Two of the short stories he wrote contain themes and motifs that specifically explain the plotline. The first story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” sets its scene in the depths of a desolate area in Africa, where the main characters, Harry and his wife, decide to make their home. After living there for a few years, Harry ventures out and falls into a thorn bush, thus infecting his leg with gangrene. A few weeks later, he finds himself on the brink between life and death, unable to treat such a severe infection. Throughout the whole story, his life is flashing before his eyes as he recalls all of the major events that occurred in his past. By nightfall, Harry is acting unusual, and he begins to feel as if life is not worth living anymore. After he drifts off to sleep that evening, his wife goes to check on him and discovers that her husband has passed away (Hemingway 52-77). The second great work of Hemingway, “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” is also set in a deserted section of Africa. Francis and his wife, Margot, are on a safari adventure along with their tour guide named Wilson. The way these three characters interact with each other creates tension and provides an adequate plot for the story. The trip begins with the couple intending on hunting big game. At first they track down a lion that continuously roars throughout the night, and later decide to chase after buffalos. To add to the complications of the trip, Margot has an intimate relationship with their tour guide. The story c...
By being both inside and outside Nick's thoughts, the reader can sense precisely the drama that Hemingway wishes to bring to trout fishing....
Hemingway constantly draws parallels to his life with his characters and stories. One blatant connection is with the short story, “Indian Camp,” in which an Indian baby is born and its father dies. As Nick is Hemingway’s central persona, the story revolves around his journey across a lake to an Indian village. In this story, Nick is a teenager watching his father practice as a doctor in an Indian village near their summer home. In one particularly important moment, Hemingway portrays the father as cool and collected, which is a strong contrast to the Native American “squaw’s” husband, who commits suicide during his wife’s difficult caesarian pregnancy. In the story, which reveals Hemingway’s fascination with suicide, Nick asks his father, “Why did he kill himself, daddy?” Nick’s father responds “I don’t kno...
Tobias Wolff is framing his story Hunters in the Snow, in the countryside near Spokane, Washington, where three friends with three different personalities, decided to take a trip to the woods for hunting in a cold, snowy weather. The whole story follows the hunting trip of these three friends. The reader can easily observe that the cold, hostile environment is an outward expression of how the men behave towards one another. Kenny, with a heart made of ice is rather hostile to Tub, while Frank is cold and indifferent to Tub and his pleas for help.The environment is matching the characters themselves, being cold and uncaring as the author described the two from truck when they laughed at the look of Tub: “You ought to see yourself,” the driver said. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Frank?”(48). Near the beginning of the story the cold and the waiting surely creates an impact in the mood of the character. Tub is restless from the wait and the cold adds on to it. He complains about being cold and Kenny and Frank, his friends tell him to stop complaining, which seems to be very unfriendly. Wolff builds up the story on the platform of cold weather and the impact of the cold on each character slowly builds up.
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.
In September of 1919, after returning to his home and readjusting to his old life, he went on a fishing and camping trip with friends to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The trip inspired the short story, Big Two-Hearted River, in which his somewhat biographical character, Nick Adams made a return to his favorite fishing grounds after coming home from the war. Nick found that the area had been through some sort of fire, and the scorched trees and blackened insects represented Hemingway’s feelings that nothing was the same. A place which had once been so familiar and positive in his eyes was transmogriphied into a province of melancholy and woe.
This example solidifies the fact that the lake and nature as a whole is Nick’s way of escaping the world and being one with his emotions which is honestly quite hard for a male, especially during the time period of this book during the 1920’s when men were looked at to be dominant and nearly emotionless. When Bill addresses Nick’s situation with Marjorie, Hemingway exposes Nick’s vulnerability by his responses to Bill. After each opinion that Bill spoke to Nick, Nick “said nothing” or “nodded” or “sat quiet” (46). These actions by Nick were very repetitive throughout this conversation and displays the emotional wound that Nick was facing by being wrapped in his own thoughts about Marjorie. Just as the “liquor had all died out of him and left him alone,” so had Marjorie. “He might never see her again. It was all gone, finished” (47). Nick’s love of nature throughout the compilation of short stories adds an abundant amount of meaning to nature and its place in
Ernest Hemingway uses the various events in Nick Adams life to expose the reader to the themes of youth, loss, and death throughout his novel In Our Time. Youth very often plays its part in war, and since In Our Time relates itself very frequently to war throughout; it is not a surprise that the theme of youthful innocence arises in many of the stories. In “Indian Camp” the youthful innocence is shown in the last sentence of the story: “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.” (19) When this sentence and the conversation Nick and his father have before they get on the boat are combined in thought it shows that because of Nicks age at the time that he does not yet understand the concept of death.
Hemingway does an extraordinary job with presenting numerous elements of literature in his short story. Hemingway’s
Ernest Hemingway is an author that uses the themes of coming of age, sexism, and racism in the Nick Adams series of short stories. “Indian Camp,” the first short story in Hemingway’s best collection of short stories, is a story about a very young boy in the Michigan north woods, accompanying his father, Dr. Adams, and his uncle George to an American Indian camp on the other side of the lake to help a pregnant Indian women in labor. There the doctor performs the procedure with tools not usually used for laboring a child. At the end they all discover that the husband committed suicide because the wife was screaming of excruciating pain during the labor. Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Indian Camp” shows Nick Adam’s transitions into adulthood
At a very young age it was apparent to those around him that Hemingway really was something special. Many marveled at how he was able to create such a dynamic story. Not many knew at the time that the majority of his ideas for his writings were coming from his own personal experiences. For example, he always wrote of death by violence in his writings, and this came to him through the hunting trips with his father (The Cycle of American Literature 200). The violence he witnessed out there in the fields with his father influenced him enough to write a detailed story of such conduct. The events to transpire throughout Hemingway’s life would allow him to write short stories unimaginable to the average person.