Using action and limited knowledge to portray emotion

In Big Hearted River, we are introduced to a new side of the post-war Nick. Now that he is free from society and on his own in the wild, Nick is presented as relaxed, comfortable, and at home. This is a sharp contrast from the traumatized and apathetic Nick we saw in Soldier's Home. To convey the message of a troubled veteran finding inner peace in the serenity of nature, Hemingway uses detailed description of the the actual events in the story while providing us only a limited understanding of Nick's desires, experiences and motives.

Throughout the story, Hemingway meticulously details nearly all of Nick's actions. From this alone we can infer a great deal about how he has been changed by the war and in conjunction with the other stories why this change took place. The tranquility of nature reminds Nick of when he was a child and when life was simpler. By using powerful imagery, Hemingway creates a portrait of Nick's quest to escape his painful war memories.

Although it is easy to see how and even partly why detachment from civilization is calming for Nick, there is a great deal about Nick that is not revealed. Things like why Nick often seems to blissfully regress into ignorance, why he seems content in making arbitrary choices (camp location), and why he avoids getting too excited are simply stated and no indication as to what Nick's reasoning is can be found. By forcing the reader to read between the lines and interpret Nick's actions, Hemingway brings the character to life.

Detailed imagery of Nick's actions and environment show the reader what Nick sees and why he feels at peace in nature. Leaving some of his motives and psychology unknown creates a more complex character and also shows how only someone who has experienced certain tragic events can ever comprehend their significance.

Change in Nick's Character

When I read Big Two-Hearted River Part I the first thing I noticed was that Hemingway had turned back to the character of Nick. The only thing was that Nick's character didn't seem to be the same person as he was in the earlier stories. In The Three Days Blow Nick was a frustrated young man, and life seemed to be overwhelming him. It seemed as though he desired to get away from conventional society and everything that was around him. In the Big Two-Hearted River, Nick seems to have found happiness and his character is no longer the angry young man he was before.

Nick slipped off his pack and lay down in the shade. 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. (Hemingway, 137)

Passages like this abound in this story and portray Nick as a man at peace with himself and his environment. So, what has caused this change in Nick's character? Was it simply the passage of time, the new environment he's in, or was it something that has happened to Nick that caused him to change? I believe that the new pristine environment and the absence of others has caused this change. What do you think?

Post per Dan K.

After reading “Soldier’s Home” I was given a false representation of what it was like for all soldiers coming home from the war. I do believe that many of the soldiers feel a dismembered feeling from the general public, but I also think that many are oriented with some aspects of themselves.

“Seney was burned, the country was burned over and changed, but it did not matter. It could not all be burned” (135).

“[Nick] was happy” (134).

Another thing that I noticed was a sense of direction from Nick, who was made out to be emotionally lost. At first I read it as a geographical sense of direction, but interpreted it to be more.

“He did not need to get his map out. He knew where he was from the position of the river” (135).

“Nick kept his direction by the sun. He knew where he wanted to strike the river and kept on through the pine plain…” (136).

“The sun was nearly down… He knew it could not be more than a mile” (137).

Although Hemingway portrays his characters to be melancholy lost souls, but also hints that some come from the war with direction, is this a clever literary trick by Hemingway to neutralize our feelings about WWI?

Waiting, Wishing, Wanting

In "Big-Hearted River: Part One" Nick travels to the town of Seney to camp and escape from the world. Sadly, Nick finds that the town has been burnt to the ground. Nick goes through the woods not as a man but as a returning veteran. The town is a metaphor that everything anbout his home, his life is burnt and abandoned.

One of the most important metaphors in the story are the black grasshoppers. Nick spends a great deal of time observing them. These grasshoppers were not black before the town had erupted in fire but now they are. Nick wonders how long they will remain black. The grasshoppers are evident to be metaphors for Nick and his fellow traumatized soldiers. The grasshoppers as well as the soldiers have been hardened from their past and from which there is no escape.

My question as well as Nick's is how long with the grasshoppers [soldiers] stay black? Will they ever be able to shed the misery of the war and see life as a beautiful thing or will they submit to the darkness and simply wait for the end?