ESSAY CEMETERY

Themes ·        Fire damage ·        Life in nature ·        Nature goes on even after the fire “Seney was burned, the country was burned over and changed, but it did not matter. It could not all be burned.” ·        Nature allegories- trout, grasshoppers ·        Nature brings pleasure “The road climbed steadily. It was hard work walking up-hill. His muscles ached and the day was hot, but Nick felt happy. He felt he had left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs. It was all back of him.” ·        Interaction with nature is easy and taken for granted “As he smoked his legs stretched out in front of him, he noticed a grasshopper walk along the ground and up onto his woolen sock.” ·        Pack on his back “Still, it was too heavy. It was much too heavy. He had his leather rod-case in his hand and leaning forward to keep the weight of the pack high on his shoulders he walked along the road that paralleled the railway

Part I The train stops in Wisconsin, in Seney, a town that burned down, and lets Nick off with his pack. Nick surveys the countryside, reflecting on what was there once. Nick watches the fish in the river, and particularly enjoys watching the trout as they cling onto the river bottom or swim upstream. He slings his too-heavy pack on his back and starts a hard climb uphill, but he feels happy and unburdened. He looks into the distance, where far off he can see unburned countryside. He stops and smokes a cigarette and notices that all the grasshoppers are black from living in the soot. He crosses the fire line into living forest. At any time he could go to the river but he wants to hit it as far upstream as possible. He reaches a pine grove where there is no underbrush and sleeps there in the afternoon. Afterwards he heads towards the river and makes camp there, leveling the ground to sleep on and making pegs for a tent. He sets up the tent with cheesecloth to keep mosquitoe