30 pages • 1 hour read
Ernest HemingwayBig Two-Hearted River
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1925A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Nature’s Power to Heal
Nature, particularly the river and the surrounding wilderness, serves as a sanctuary for Nick Adams. It is not simply a backdrop against which Nick grapples with his internal struggles, but also the source of healing, allowing him recover from the psychological wounds of war. The vast openness of the natural world offers him space for self-reflection and liberation from the constraints of civilization. Nick’s connection with nature is deeply intimate and symbiotic. His interaction with the environment—fishing, observing wildlife, and experiencing the elements—succors him and provides the emotional strength and stability that has eluded him.
The burned-over town of Seney and its surroundings remind Nick of the destroyed towns and countryside of World War I, where cities were obliterated. The burned-over area must have had a deeply affecting experience on Nick, because he immediately sits down after seeing it. The grasshoppers he discovers along his way are black from the soot, just as Nick’s soul is stained from his war experiences.
The river, however, represents purity, renewal, and a return to basics, its flowing waters offering spiritual cleansing and rebirth. As he immerses himself in the river, Nick is also cleansing his mind and spirit from the traumatic memories of war. The river’s changing flow, from calm to turbulent, parallels Nick’s own emotional journey, and the dangers of the swamp represent the fears Nick will encounter as he integrates his past experiences into his new life.
Nick’s trip to the woods is a return to basics, a way to regain the simplicity of life. Nature is a living, breathing presence that Nick merges with to move beyond the trauma of war to health and creativity. Nature in “Big Two-Hearted River” serves as more than a mere backdrop; it becomes an essential character in the story, influencing Nick’s emotional landscape and acting as a catalyst for his healing and self-discovery.
In “Big Two-Hearted River,” nature is a powerful force that facilitates Nick’s journey toward emotional recovery and a more grounded, balanced state of being.
Post-Traumatic Stress and Resilience
“Big Two-Hearted River” subtly addresses the effects of war trauma and explores Nick’s resilience in dealing with the aftermath of war and his attempts to find stability and peace of mind. While Hemingway does not explicitly mention the war or delve into the details of Nick’s experiences, Nick’s behavior—avoidance of certain places, emotional flatness, and intensity of routines—suggests trauma. The story depicts Nick avoiding the burned-over areas and the swamp, which potentially serve as triggers, evoking memories or emotions associated with the war trauma. His avoidance hints at his struggle to confront and process these difficult memories. Throughout the story, there is a sense of inner turmoil within Nick. His response to positive stimuli, typically described as “good,” is muted. He seems surprised by his own happiness. His need for routines, precision, and control suggests an attempt to manage his emotions and maintain stability in the face of internal chaos.
When Nick first sees the fish in the river, the narrator states:
He watched them holding themselves with their noses in the current, many trout in deep, fast moving water, slightly distorted as he watched far down through the glassy convex surface of the pool, its surface pushing and swelling smooth against the resistance of the log-driven piles of the bridge. (Paragraph 3).
By holding themselves steady in the swift current, the fish are doing exactly what Nick is trying to do: showing resolve, strength, and determination. However, when one fish darts upstream, “Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling” (Paragraph 5). The narrator does not say what that feeling is, but it is strong enough to cause his pulse to race. He needs stability, a firm foundation.
The black grasshoppers serve as a metaphor for Nick’s emotional state. They have been changed by events outside their control, they show the signs of those events in their bodies, and they may be transformed for some time to come. But Nick sets the stained grasshopper free, suggesting he sees hope in the future.
The story depicts nature as a healing force. The river and the wilderness provide a refuge where Nick can explore and digest his trauma. Nature’s simplicity and the need for routine activities are therapeutic. Nick’s meticulous routines in setting up camp, preparing for fishing, and following a structured approach to his activities are attempts to create order and stability in his life. This routine serves as a means to restore order in a chaotic world.
Despite the emotional weight he carries, Nick demonstrates resilience through his ability to endure and adapt to the challenges he faces. His deliberate approach to tasks reflects his determination to overcome his past experiences and find a path toward recovery. “Big Two-Hearted River” portrays the complexities of post-traumatic stress, showcasing Nick’s internal battles and his attempts to navigate through the aftermath of war trauma. However, it also shows the human capacity for recovery. The story highlights the significance of nature and routine as crucial elements in Nick’s journey toward healing and emotional stability.
Inevitability of Change
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is associated with saying, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” This certainly is true for Nick Adams in “Big Two-Hearted River.” Nick has returned from the war to a disorienting, changed world, and to reestablish his equilibrium he has taken a nostalgia-driven fishing and camping trip into the woods. When he arrives, however, he discovers not comforting familiarity, but a town destroyed by fire. When he last visited, the town was thriving with a hotel, houses, and 13 saloons. Now it is destroyed and abandoned, with only the ruined foundation of the Mansion House hotel remaining.
Nick seems to take comfort in the fact that “the river was there” (Paragraph 2); however, as Heraclitus might remind him, the river is constantly changing too. He watches with pleasure the fish “keeping themselves steady in the current”; nevertheless, they exert much effort to remain in place with their “wavering fins” (Paragraph 2). Nick’s heart “tightened” when he saw a fish dart upstream (Paragraph 5).
Like the town, the surrounding woods had been burned over: “Seney was burned, the country was burned over and changed,” Nick laments (Paragraph 8). Even the grasshoppers have changed and are “all sooty black in color” and Nick “wondered how long they would stay that way” (Paragraph 12). Perhaps Nick is considering the changes that have occurred to him as he wonders how long it will take to get back to “normal.”
Throughout “Big Two-Hearted River,” Nick’s deliberate movements and meticulous attention to detail demonstrate an internal struggle to find stability, to control his environment. Nevertheless, his behavior suggests a deeper, internal transformation, as well as an understanding that change is inevitable.
In “Big Two-Hearted River,” Hemingway portrays the inevitability of change through the natural world, Nick’s actions, and the subtle symbolism embedded in the landscape. The story suggests that change—both physical and psychological—is an inescapable reality of the human condition.
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