Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway - Analysis

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 track”

·       Transition between burn country and lush country

“Two hundred yards down the fire line stopped. Then it was sweet fern, growing ankle high, walk through, and clumps of jack pines; a long undulating country with frequent rises and descents, sandy underfoot and the country alive again.”

·       Self- dependence and resourcefulness

“Nick kept his direction by the sun

Across the open mouth of the tent Nick fixed cheesecloth to keep out mosquitoes. He crawled inside under the mosquito bar with various things from the pack to put at the head of the bed under the slant of the canvas”

·       Delay of pleasures

“At any time he knew he could strike the river by turning off to his left. It could not be more than a mile away. But he kept on toward the north to hit the river as far upstream as he could go in one day's walking.

…

He knew the beans and spaghetti were still too hot. He looked at the fire, then at the tent; he was not going to spoil it all by burning his tongue.”

·       Reveling in nature

“He lay on his back and looked up into the pine trees. His neck and back and the small of his back rested as he stretched. The earth felt good against his back.”

·       Pleasure in temporary homemaking

“He was there, in the good place. He was in his home where he had made it. Now he was hungry.”

·       It is right to behave in a way that brings pleasure (no pretenses of being entirely outdoorsy; doing outdoorsy things as the whim strikes)

“He opened and emptied a can of pork and beans and a can of spaghetti into the frying pan. 

"I've got a right to eat this kind of stuff, if I'm willing to carry it," Nick said.”

·       Man leaves a positive mark on nature

“he opened a small can of apricots. He liked to open cans. He emptied the can of apricots out into a tin cup. While he watched the coffee on the fire, he drank the juice syrup of the apricots, carefully at first to keep from spilling, then meditatively, sucking the apricots down. They were better than fresh apricots.”

·       Satisfaction at resourcefulness and self-sustenance

“He turned the skillet upside down on the grill, drank the coffee, sweetened and yellow brown with the condensed milk in it, and tidied up the camp. It was a good camp.”

·       Fishing

·       Appreciation of solitude, appreciation of competence

“If a trout was touched with a dry hand, a white fungus attacked the unprotected spot. Years before when he had fished crowded streams, with fly fishermen ahead of him and behind him, Nick had again and again come on dead trout furry with white fungus, drilled against a rock, or floating belly up in some pool. Nick did not like to fish with other men on the river. Unless they were of your party, they spoiled it.”

·       Aspiring to emotional steadiness

“He went over and sat on the logs. He did not want to rush his sensations any.”

·       Weird expectations from himself

“Nick did not want to go in there now. He felt a reaction against deep wading with the water deepening up under his armpits, to hook big trout in places impossible to land them. In the swamp the banks were bare, the big cedars came together overhead, the sun did not come through, except in patches; in the fast deep water, in the half-light, the fishing would be tragic. In the swamp fishing was a tragic adventure. Nick did not want it. He didn't want to go up the stream any further today.

"I've got a right to eat this kind of stuff, if I'm willing to carry it," Nick said.”

Devices

·       Short, unembellished sentences

·       Unimaginative metaphors

·       Repetition- the same word or phrase repeats twice close

“He turned on his side and shut his eyes. He was sleepy. He felt sleep coming. He curled up under the blanket and went to sleep.”

·       Childlike descriptions

“Nick was excited. He was excited by the early morning and the river. He was really too hurried to eat breakfast, but he knew he must.”

Response

·       River- runs through everything, fire-ravaged or not. A metaphor for life, that runs its course steadily through good and bad

·       Grasshoppers- their adaptive capabilities are to be admired. They calmly cope with tragedy, making do with what they have. They will change back to their regular color when the effects of the fire will have blown over- adaptation is good, know to adapt, readers.

·       The trout- consistently swimming upstream or clinging to the river bottom, this animal is hardy, insistent, capable and determined, like Americans ought to be or are.

·       Pack on Nick's back- "it's much too heavy"- people should let go of their personal possessions. Things burn down and change but people are people and "not everything can be burned".

Also, having a home makes a burden look smaller (also, making a home is very easy): "With the tent unpacked and spread on the ground, the pack, leaning against a jack pine, looked much smaller."

Ernest Hemingway

Keywords

·       River

·       Fish

·       Nature descriptions

·       Leather rod-case

·       Pack

·       Grasshopper

·       Pine

·       Mile

·       Stump

·       Good

·       Happy

·       Fishing jargon: rod, thread, hook, leader