Within Hemingway’s short story, “Big
Two-Hearted River,” he is narrating a man who, I suppose, lived in a town
called Seney. The story is broken into two parts which I distinguished to have
polar opposite meanings and effects on the reader. In part one, in the very
first paragraph, Hemingway is describing Seney as being burned to the ground
and left in ashes. Everything was ruined. However, by part two, the entire
element changed, and instead of fire he surrounds the reader in its total
opposite, water, as he narrate Nick fishing throughout majority of the second
part of the story.
I
like the contrast of elements. It immediately reminded me of the archetype
desert versus water. Desert, which represents lack of life and desolation and
depicts the ruins of the town and the burned-over stretch of hillside presented
in the first part of Hemingway’s short story. While, in contrast, water
represents life and birth, which depicts the river full of trout in the second
part of story. However, the questions still remain, why was the land scorched in
the first place and what exactly was the meaning of fire and water here? I don’t
know. Honestly, I don’t even know what Hemingway’s point in writing this was.
Maybe he just felt like it, or perhaps there was a purpose to it but I just
missed it or something. I don’t know, but I do like the comparison he made with
the archetypes here though.
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