In Hemingway’s short story “Big Two-Hearted River,” he subtly discusses the topic of mental illness and parallels it alongside nature, as Nick Adams returns from war and comes to terms with PTSD, or shell shock. Nature, specifically water, grounds Nick and gives him a sense of stability. As he struggles, he uses tactile, hands-on experiences to keep him afloat. For Nick, the water is seen simultaneously as a place of hope and a place of fear. His state of mind is reflected in his excitement towards the river contrasted with his anxiety towards the swamp. Nick’s love of fishing, again represents his need for balance and control. The act of fishing in the river ultimately is peaceful and calm for Nick, but even it was a bit too much at times. …show more content…
In the unfortunate situation of Nick Adams, this idyllic return was shattered in the first few sentences, where Hemingway describes the burnt and decimated town. To cope with this shock in the wake of the war, Nick turns to simplicity and order. Therefore, there are countless examples in the story of Nick turning to repetitive, definitive tasks. He painstakingly flattens the ground where he plans to camp, making sure there are no bumps or deformities. For war veterans like Nick Adams, it can be comforting to take control where one can find it. He finds a satisfactory, “good” place to camp, after a long walk searching for just the right place. (Hemingway 185) Once he is satisfied, he carefully packs his bags and hangs his supplies out of harm’s way. It is clear that experiences such as these help Nick to focus on the present. “He had not been unhappy all day. This was different though. Now things were done. There had been this to do. Now it was done. It had been a hard trip. He had been very tired. That was done. He had made his camp. He was settled. Nothing could touch him.” (Hemingway 185) Accomplishing simple tasks were a seemingly small victory, but helped to make the unsettling things seem more familiar. Alternatively, when one is searching for any sense of control loses grip, it can throw them completely off balance. Whether it’s from the overexcitement of almost …show more content…
More specifically, the way Nick views the fish and their life within the water symbolizes his longing for steadiness. He mentions the strength of the fish time and time again. Nick “watched the trout keeping themselves steady in the current with wavering fins. As he watched them they changed their positions by quick angles, only to hold steady in the fast water again. Nick watched them a long time.” (Hemingway 177) One can infer that he is almost envious of the fish. Drawing a parallel to his own life, he thinks of the river as “too fast.” (Hemingway 182) The fish have the ability, despite the rushing and ever-changing water around them, to stay stable and adapt to whatever is going on around them. Nick, however, struggles with this in his own life. “Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling.” (Hemingway 178) Consequently, the confidence of the trout makes him uneasy, and brings to light his own faults and inadequacies. However, when studying life, we can’t focus on the lows without acknowledging the happier points. Nick finds solace and peace in fishing and the river itself. Rather than be in the company of other humans, he wants to be alone with the fish. Unlike other men on the river, he has a healthy respect for the trout, and is careful not to cause unnecessary harm or imbalance to nature. Just being around the river causes a dramatic shift in Nick’s
Nature has a powerful way of portraying good vs. bad, which parallels to the same concept intertwined with human nature. In the story “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the author portrays this through the use of a lake by demonstrating its significance and relationship to the characters. At one time, the Greasy Lake was something of beauty and cleanliness, but then came to be the exact opposite. Through his writing, Boyle demonstrates how the setting can be a direct reflection of the characters and the experiences they encounter.
In his short story, “Big Two-Hearted River”, Ernest Hemingway focuses on the mental and emotional state of Nick, the protagonist, who “le[aves] everything behind” during a wilderness fishing trip. Traumatic thoughts and memories haunt Nick, but the cause of his inner turmoil is not disclosed in the story. Other short stories by Hemingway, however, reveal that Nick Adams is a wounded veteran who served in the First World War. To distract himself from these painful memories, Nick concentrates on the physical details of his journey such as making camp and preparing food. In addition to self-distraction, he attempts to inhibit his ability to think through hunger and physical exhaustion.
Despite the numerous somber critiques throughout Hemingway’s text, there is ultimately a positive sensation in this story as a broken man endeavors to heal himself by returning home to nature to find and do what he loves. The vivid detail throughout the text can signify more than the sentence itself. Some of Nick’s actions appear to be normal, but have more meaning when analyzed. Lewis Weeks addresses an issue in Nick’s tent assembling technique, which is described thoroughly: With the ax, slit off a bright slab of pine from one of the stumps and split it into pegs for the tent. He wanted them long and solid to hold in the ground.
When Nick looks at the burnt town and all the black ash everywhere not a building standing but old burnt down wood. The only thing that still stood was the old Mansion hotel and it was still destroyed. Hemingway used the town to help the reader understand that this is Nick’s new beginning in life. The example that he used is simple (fresh start). Just like nature would have done if it burned a forest down, it would rebuild itself. Hemingway continues to write about Nick being happy with the things he saw. After Nick found his camp site and made a fire he decided to eat. Hemingway explains what Nick had eat and explained what Nick was thinking about when he deicide to make coffee. Back in the war Nick had a friend by the name of Hopkins. Hopkins was a big coffee drinker and Nick was not so when Nick deicide to make coffee it reminded him of an argument that Hopkins and Nick had gotten into about which way coffee is suppose to be made. “He could not remember which way he made coffee. He could remember an...
The theme of change is showed in the opening of the story when Nick returns his hometown from war and walks along the rail road. Seeing this burned over country and seeking the beauty from nature, as Hemingway wrote on page 1 of “Big Two-Hearted River” “There was...
Mental illnesses are one of the most frightening medical conditions to fall upon someone, as there are not any ways of curing such things and end up changing who the effect one is as a person. Due to how devastating mental illnesses are, it not only affects the person directly but also all those around them in various ways. Miriam Toews’ shows how mental illness effect people differently in her novel The Flying Troutman, a story about a family stricken by a members mental illness and their journey of coping with it. She displays this idea through the four characters of Hattie, Min, Thebes, and Logan Troutman as they go through their daily routines and interactions with one another.
Hemingway uses details of natural and manufactured settings to foreshadow Nick and Marjorie's breakup by setting most of the story around water. For Hemingway, water foreshadows something bad that is going to happen. In the beginning when they first are on the boat, the story says that they suddenly drop from "sandy shallows to twelve feet of dark water." This foreshadows their breakup because the water goes straight down into dark water which shows that their relationship is going from something easy and good straight into something dark that will end badly. The manufactured setting of the ruined mill foreshadows their breakup as well because Marjorie views the ruins as a "castle," which shows that she viewed their relationship as a fairy
While Nick enjoys the parties and a sense of nostalgia, he becomes aware of his conflicting hatred and sets up control over his arousing temptations. Nick first meets his rancor at Tom Buchanan’s party in New York. Nick looks out at the black streets and sees himself “within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”(35). Nick is in limbo; he cannot tilt his metronome. Limbo, like a broken metronome, worries us, and we may think that life is absent of any rhythm. A shower of emotions floods us: anxiety, curiosity, indecisiveness; however, we forget that all we have to do is fix our problem. The state of be...
Hemingway uses details of natural and manufactured setting to foreshadow Nick and Marjorie's break up and to emphasize their differences. Hemingway uses water to foreshadow the ugly events that unfold later in the story. Nick and Marjorie coast along the shore line but then the bed of the lake "suddenly" drops off from shallow water to twelve feet of "dark" water. This means something bad is going to happen and soon. Hemingway describes the ruins of Hortons Bay but they are perceived differently between Nick and Marjorie. Nick sees the town for what it is, a ghost town with ruins. Marjorie sees a "castle". This shows that Nick and Marjorie view their relationship very differently. Marjorie sees a fairytale happy ending where her and Nick get
Hemingway states, “After the hot day, the dew had come quickly and heavily. The river made no sound. It was too fast and smooth” (1204). Nick goes to the river to find a quiet, serene place. He knows it will always be there and that he can always count on it. In the Disney movie, Pocahontas, the Indian princess sings a song about rivers, how they are always changing and flowing, and that you never know what’s around the river bend. This suggests change, but Nick does not look at it that way. All he knows is he can always come back to the same river, even when his world around him is falling apart. Water in general is natural, and is known for spiritual healing and great simplicity. Nick loves how he can rely on something like a river for mental and spiritual support, something he hasn’t had since his return. Nick also uses the river as a guide. He knows where he is in correlation to the river, which helps him find his way. This is a huge step for Nick, because he can’t rely on much of anything, but the river gives him that peace and sense of
Hemingway often depicts nature as a pastoral paradise within the novel, and the fishing trip serves as his epitome of such, entirely free from the corruptions of city life and women. Doing away with modern modes of transportation, they walk many miles gladly to reach the Irati River. While fishing, Jake and Bill are able to communicate freely with each other, unbound by the social confines of American and European society. The men also enjoy the camaraderie of English Veteran, Harris. This is quite different from the competitive relationships that can develop between men in the presence of women. Bill is able to express his fondness for Jake openly without it “mean[ing] [he] was a faggot,” (VIII), and Jake has no qualms over his fish being smaller than Bill’s, in what could be interpreted as an admission of lesser sexual virility.
Throughout the entirety of the story Hemingway hints at the fact that Nick has been away from home for a while; “Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town…” (Hemingway #). Hemingway also implies that things aren’t now what they once were to Nick: “It was a long time since Nick had looked into a stream and seen trout” (Hemingway #).
In “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a woman who needs to give birth to an infant. With difficulties, the infant is born, but the father could not handle the pressure, a fact which leads to the Indian father taking his own life. Ultimately, the suicide of the Indian father in Hemingway’s short story “Indian Camp” compels the reader to examine what made the Indian father get so depressed that he commits suicide and how it affected Nick’s life.
Hemingway's novel contains a morale for everyone that had or will suffer from either a physical wound, like Jake, or from an emotional wound such as Brett that nothing is ever unchangeable. The title strengthens this idea of changeability and evolution, if you believe in yourself and in what surrounds you, such as your passions, your friends, you can overcome every wound, even the one so personal and so horrible that you can not even mention it. Like Jake's impotence because after the Fiesta, the sun always rises.
In Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, rain is a constant symbol of approaching disaster. It serves as a forewarning of bad things to soon come like physical pain, emotional struggles, and death. The symbol of the rain also sets the gloomy mood of the novel, giving an insight of the direction the war is going and the way the people are feeling. Its analogy towards death and its influence on the Hemingway hero, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, to accentuate the characteristics of the leading role. In the long run, it connects all of the many tragedies in the novel. It reiterates the message of the heartbreaking effects of war and death that goes hand-in-hand with it. From the beginning of the novel, the reader is told of a permanent rain that is death itself, the menace that emerges throughout the entire novel.