Nick Adams 'Big Two-Hearted River'
HEMINGWAY AND HUMSUN:
Essay 1
At first glance, Big Two-Hearted Rive appears to be a story in which nothing really happens. It mumble’s along in a manner so typically Hemingway and mostly comprises of a recital of the shallow thoughts and methodical proceedings of the protagonist, Nick Adams. However, the subtle motifs and emotive subtext make it clear that this is another piece of “ice berg” writing and we cannot resolve to accept it prima facie. It has been noted by a multicity of critics that Big Two Hearted River is a “story about war in which war is never mentioned”. Vernon (2002: 34) says/notes that “the absence of war is exactly the point of the story”, as Nick Adams attempts to escape his wartime memories through a solitary fishing trip. The repression of …show more content…
This is possible allusion to the way the violence and vehemence of war effects soldiers. They become a product of their environment hardened and “blackened” by the events taking place around them. The author also repeats the word “baggage” twice in the second sentence (Hemingway, 2003: 163). This strikes one as peculiar as such a weighted word is hardly conducive to the fluidity of a sentence. The repetition of this word strikes a tone with the fact that is has a double meaning, this being the notion of a burden caused by past experiences that one carries with them to the present. Nick’s “baggage” would be the traumatic experiences that he endured during the war, experiences that he still carries with him and that effect his present. Adaire (1977: 149) echoes this notion in saying that “the past and the present coexist in the mind of the protagonist”. This resonates with a line from another (supposed) Nick Adams story in In Our Time, In Another Country, where Nick says that “The war was always there but we did not go to it anymore.” (Hemingway, 2003:
Essay 1
At first glance, Big Two-Hearted Rive appears to be a story in which nothing really happens. It mumble’s along in a manner so typically Hemingway and mostly comprises of a recital of the shallow thoughts and methodical proceedings of the protagonist, Nick Adams. However, the subtle motifs and emotive subtext make it clear that this is another piece of “ice berg” writing and we cannot resolve to accept it prima facie. It has been noted by a multicity of critics that Big Two Hearted River is a “story about war in which war is never mentioned”. Vernon (2002: 34) says/notes that “the absence of war is exactly the point of the story”, as Nick Adams attempts to escape his wartime memories through a solitary fishing trip. The repression of …show more content…
This is possible allusion to the way the violence and vehemence of war effects soldiers. They become a product of their environment hardened and “blackened” by the events taking place around them. The author also repeats the word “baggage” twice in the second sentence (Hemingway, 2003: 163). This strikes one as peculiar as such a weighted word is hardly conducive to the fluidity of a sentence. The repetition of this word strikes a tone with the fact that is has a double meaning, this being the notion of a burden caused by past experiences that one carries with them to the present. Nick’s “baggage” would be the traumatic experiences that he endured during the war, experiences that he still carries with him and that effect his present. Adaire (1977: 149) echoes this notion in saying that “the past and the present coexist in the mind of the protagonist”. This resonates with a line from another (supposed) Nick Adams story in In Our Time, In Another Country, where Nick says that “The war was always there but we did not go to it anymore.” (Hemingway, 2003: