Hermie

Hermie

Hermie, written by Nathaniel Rich, is a story about moving on and letting go on the past. It is a story that many people somehow can relate to in real life situations. Sometimes doing the right thing is not what makes you fell better. At least not at first.
In this essay, I will try to find out more about our main character, and the problems he is dealing with in this story.

Characterisation:

Main character:

The main character in the story, who we do not know the name of, has a wife and a daughter. For work he is a biologist, with an expertise in the ocean. He travels around the world to visit different conferences, where he gives lectures about the ocean. Once a year, he speaks at the Eighteenth International Conference of Limnology and Oceanology, which is being held in Salzburg this year. Since he was a little boy, he has always had a great love for the ocean, I can tell from the conversation with Hermie.
(p. 94, line 1-3)

The main character is considered, thorough and a little bit superstitious.
I can tell from all the details he notices when he walks into the bathroom or when he sees Hermie. (p. 92, line 6-9) (p. 92, line 13-27)
The fact that he is very nervous for his speech, although he has held many lectures before as a biologist, also indicates that he is considered. It might also indicate that he is still a bit immature. Full grown and independent men does normally not get so nervous before a speech they have done before, that they become superstitious and has to repeat a sentence over and over in their head, just to calm themselves down like the main character has to in this story.

Hermie and Hermie’s relationship to main the character:

Hermie is a hermit crab. Hermie is able to speak with the main character, and has known him since he was a little boy, playing at the beach. They met each other at Turtle beach, where they built sand castles together.
But one day the main character did not show up at the beach to play with Hermie anymore. Some years after that, Turtle Beach got turned into buildings. Ever since, Hermie has travelled from coast to coast, trying to find a place to live. We do not now much for sure about Hermie, except that he looks worn and injured. We do not even know if he actually exists. But I do not think he exists. I think the main character imagines that his fantasy friend from his childhood has shown up at the bathroom. The way I see it, Hermie is a symbol of the main characters childhood and the immature side of him that he still has.
We get a sign that Hermie might not exist, at p. 96, line 9-12, where the main character wonders how Hermie has got to Salzburg, and how he was able to get inside the bathroom.

Conflict:

When Hermie and the main character are conversing, Hermie tries to convince him, that the main character should let him in to his life again. At first Hermie finds it commonplace, that they are going to be living together again and go on new adventures, but he quickly finds out that a part of the main character has moved on in his life, and now has a kid and a wife.
(p. 97, line 5-19)

It is also very clear and the bottom of page 97, that Hermie and the main character has grown apart from each other. Hermie talks about adventures and how he could live in the main characters family. But the main character does not think that uncomplicated anymore, and tells Hermie that he can not get through the airport control, this makes Hermie silent. Last time Hermie and the main character were together, it was only the fantasy who sat the rules, but now logic and sanity has got to the main character.

Either the main character let go of his childhood memories and Hermie, or he lets him back into his life.

Setting:

The important setting in the story is the bathroom. Because that is where Hermie and the main character meet. What I connect with a bathroom is things like cleanness and silence. But I think the reason why the setting is a bathroom, is because a bathroom mostly has a mirror. A mirror symbolises facing yourself, and that is exactly what the main character does in this story. Because I do not think that Hermie exist, I think that Hermie stands for everything that is childish in him. Hermie also stands for a lot of things that the main character has to let go to make life easier for himself. Hermie stands for his nervous, immature and superstitious self.

The ending and the title:

In the end the main character chooses to flush Hermie out in the toilet, which I find very symbolic. His conversation with Hermie has been a conversation with his feelings and his immature and superstitious side. When he flushes Hermie out, he says goodbye to all these things that has kept him away from being confident in his speeches.
The main character has been through a development in the story. In the beginning he was nervous and did not believe in himself, and he ended up flushing out Hermie, delivering a great speech, and become more mature.

Hermie is the title of the story, but in this story it is also a hermit crab. I do not think it is an accidentally choice of animal. One of the characteristic things about a hermit crab, is that when it get to big for its own shell, it has to let it behind and find a bigger one.
And letting go is exactly what the main character does. He lets go of something in himself, to grow even more as a person.