Ernest Hemingway “in our time”

Posted: October 17th, 2013

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Ernest Hemingway “in our time”

Hemingway’s themes are mainly violence and death. He lived during the wartime and experienced the consequences. In Big two-hearted river, it narrates how Nick comes home and finds destruction and everything is burnt up. There are no people and it is just a lonely place. He has to settle there and be lonely. He is forced to face the psychological effects of the war on his own. After war, soldiers felt that their homeland never had an innocent environment anymore. This are some of the effects that they had to deal with after war His mode of writing has been observed to have a relationship with the mayhem of the war. He is honest about whichever subjects he is writing. He does not try to garnish his language. He tells it like it is and he puts his masculine perspective, which is normal for modern writers. When one reads chapter nine of In Our Time, it shows a relationship between the fighting bulls and soldiers at the war. For reading to comprehend how was the war, the writer uses fighting bulls as a way to represent death. Hemingway also comes up with a way of showing how much pain there is for a man dying from bleeding.

Loss is depicted in the story and it seems like a basic theme. Big two hearted river’s context is Nick has come home from war and there is nothing. Everything has been destroyed and abandoned. it reveals the feeling of many soldiers when they come home after a long mission. In the real sense, they are not destroyed physically. These soldiers feel that the environment is not as peaceful as it was before they left. They think that no one can understand how they feel after their experience at war. It is not only humans who feel they have losses but also other living things. The grasshoppers have also been left with nothing and they are covered in the black smoke. This is symbolic to mean that the living things in the environment were adjusting to the changes.

After Nick comes from battle and finds turmoil where he lived, he adjusts to the situation. Big two-hearted river states that “. Nick set up camp. He spread out blankets for his bed and erected a tent, carefully and methodically.” Despite the shocking situation, he did not mind so much. He made himself a place to a place to stay and live. He is happy about coming home because he likes the freedom. He likes writing but he said he was happy to live all that behind to come and have his freedom at home. Now, Nick is having a self-realization. He is starting to understand what he wants and how he wants it. For example, he does not want to participate in war. He wants to live peacefully at his home. He is willing to give up everything for life with freedom and peace.

He loves writing and fishing. Nick puts up a tent for himself and enjoys fishing at the river. His passion in writing is evident when he is waiting at the river, and he wishes he had something to read. This shows that he likes literature work passionately. Though he is fishing, he does not seem to enjoy it as much as he longs for literature material. When he arrived home from war, he retired to sleep and woke up at sunset. Nick walked towards the river and watched the trouts in the water. The walk from the campsite to the river can be metaphorical. It may be a symbol to show moving from a life of war to that where people enjoy life and choose to do what they want. He stands at the edge of the river. Regardless of what one wants, he or she is free to enjoy it.

This article of Big two- hearted river has lessons we have to learn through Nick. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices before we get what we want. Nick was noble enough to go to war. He fought for his country. It is a sign of patriotism. After the war was over, he started realizing what he wants. He had a passion in writing but he felt he would give it up and everything else for freedom. When he reached the fishing terrain, he saw hills and a plain. He stopped to rest as he smoked. These are signs of a relaxed man. He liked watching the horizons with the hills. He stops to sit, stretch his legs and smoke. He realized that he was comfortable being at home even though it did not look welcoming. There was actually no one to talk to or comfort him after the horrifying war experiences. He is trying to teach people that they should appreciate their homes. They are definitely in a better state than how Nick’s home was. Therefore, they should focus on improving living with each other. Co-existing in the society is the most important thing for humans. It will be beneficial to soldiers who come from war. They will appreciate to come home and find welcoming people. They will also be happy to receive all the support.

In the second part of Big two-hearted river, Nick seems to be fully settled. He liked fishing and when he woke up in the morning, he felt excited about it. This was a big step in recovering from the war trauma and the shock when he came home. He had decided to enjoy life and he did this by fishing. Nick fights the big fish as he tries to kill them. He notices that the fight is not rough like during the war. He appreciates the gift of life and realizes that the era of war is over. The struggle with the fish in the river makes him realize it is a unifying one. It is meant to create harmony between him and his environment. This struggle is symbolic because even the fish are male. Nick does not have to live in a world of war again. He is entitled to peace and a normal lifestyle with activities like fishing. Nick is discovering that he can live a normal life, away from that of a soldier. He does not like to be combat and he felt freed after he came home. This is when he learns about his passion of writing. At some point he wishes he had something to read. His self-realization is what led him to be an author. They two subjects are related and they could be considered one and the same.