Analysis of Never the Same River Twice

Karl Lilley
Critical Response
Explanations of Life Life is something that nobody can expect to be the same everyday because living it the same would be extremely boring and everyone needs excitement. Although, there are days people feel they are living the same routine but usually something occurs to change how one may view the world or certain people. In this essay, “The Same River Twice” by David Quammen, the narrator feels that he can prove the philosopher Heraclitus wrong by thinking that life will not affect no matter how much it changes around him. This is a major problem because any change will affect a person whether it is small or huge that one thing could change a person’s life especially as discussed in this essay. The thought of proving the philosopher wrong sounds easy but really in the end the narrator discovers that Heraclitus was actually right because he became more affected by the changes than he actually realized. These changes began to show their affect after he had begun to live in the small town for a stretch of years to himself and fishing everyday in the simple, constant creek. But the reason for fishing in the creek was because it was his passion, the reason for life to live on especially a main reason for living in town and also the narrator had two other friends who were married to each other. The problems begin to arise as the seasons begin to change for his friend had many jobs before living in this town and fishing became the most important thing to be accomplished. Although, the female friend only ever wanted to write novels but nobody was being published and as the narrator began to hang out more and more with them there began to be subtle changes throughout their friendship as well as the couple’s marriage. As seasons began to change, everything was different especially the river and the marriage ended and his whole world turned with such a change. The narrator helped his friends load up their things and watched them