Big Two-Hearted River
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"Big Two-Hearted River" by Ernest Hemingway is a two-part story that ends the collection In Our Time, published in 1925.
Though unmentioned in the text, the story is generally viewed as an account of a healing process for Nick Adams, a recurring character throughout this collection and other works by Hemingway. Nick, back in the states after suffering shell shock (what would now be termed post-traumatic stress syndrome) in World War I, hopes that a return to his boyhood activities of camping and fishing will similarly help him return to the serenity and peace of mind he enjoyed before the war.
[edit] Plot summary
The first part begins as Nick hikes through a burned-out forest, highly reminiscent of a burned-out battle field. Here, Nick's psychological trauma begins to manifest as he develops strange fixations on various natural elements. For example, he notices the passivity of the trout in the river, resting in the current rather than fighting upstream--similar to the passivity of Nick's condition. He also notices, repeatedly, the "blackness" of the grasshoppers, scarred like the soldiers in the war. Nick also realizes, upon stepping off the train in Seney, and seeing the "burned-over stretch of hillside", that he himself has changed just as much as the land has. Just as he fought in his war, the countryside fought against its enemy, time, showing Nick that nothing can stay the same forever.
Once Nick finds a suitable campsite, he distracts himself by meticulously pitching his tent and cooking dinner. Hemingway's prose reflects this distraction by outlining in detail every one of Nick's actions rather than his thoughts. Before he goes to bed, Nick thinks about a friend of his, and the way that he used to make coffee, smiling at the memories. He goes to bed happy, anticipating a day of fishing.
The second part of the story begins as Nick wakes up in the morning, anxious to begin fishing. He makes flapjacks for breakfast and goes to find grasshoppers for bait. As Nick's activity begins to revolve around his interactions with nature, i.e., the grasshoppers and the trout, a change begins to occur in the text itself, coming alive with Nick's continually stabilizing condition. No longer is he fixated on the negative passivity of his situation, the helplessness and hopelessness he experienced in the war. Now he is engaged in his surroundings, doing something, rather than watching things happen around him.
Nick catches a small fish, and releases it, knowing that larger fish are to be had. Soon, he strikes a big fish, and as he battles with it, the prose itself embodies what is going on in the story:
"There was a long tug. Nick struck and the rod came alive and dangerous, bent double, the line tightening, coming out of the water, tightening, all in a heavy, dangerous, steady pull. Nick felt the moment when the leader would break if the strain increased and let the line go." Like the sentences themselves, tensing and straining to convey the action, the fishing line is a deep metaphor for the construction of Hemingway's writing.
After the big fish gets away, Nick proceeds to catch two medium-sized fish and he is satisfied with them. He begins to lose interest in fishing and wishes instead that he had a book to read. Eventually he notices a swamp upstream and thinks about the complications of fishing in it. These complications begin to echo the earlier fixations, but instead of trying to distract himself, Nick confronts the thought and resolves not to try to fish in the swamp because it would be a waste, both actively and passively.
Here, by the end of the story, Nick's psyche has begun to reconcile itself with the trauma of the war and apply it to how Nick acts, thinks and feels in the present. This fishing trip has indeed begun to accomplish what it was meant to. And though the story ends with Nick's decision not to enter the swamp, the quagmire of negativity, a positive outlook lies ahead.
[edit] The River Itself
The Big Two-Hearted River is situated in Michigan's Upper Peninsula ("U.P.") and empties into Lake Superior. Hemingway fans, fishermen and beginning canoers occasionally rent canoes, during the summer, for a trip downstream to the lake. The biggest local hazards are the "black flies," which resemble house-flies, except that they inflict painful bites. During the winter, the area tends to become impassable except for snow-mobiles.
By the mid 1960's, the forest, which had been logged-over before Hemingway's last visit, was beginning to recover. An occasional large tree, left behind to repopulate the forest, could be found, along with a larger number of smaller trees with a two to four inch trunk diameter. The river water contains a measurable amount of tannic acid from trees rotting in nearby swamps.
