Big Two-Hearted River: Part II

Title	Big Two-Hearted River: Part II
# of Words	1114
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.46

Big Two-Hearted River: Part II

Word Count: 1067

Sudden, Unexpected Interjection "It is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." At one point in his
short story, "Big Two-Hearted River: Part II", Hemingway's
character Nick speaks in the first person. Why he adopts,
for one line only, the first person voice is an interesting
question, without an easy answer. Sherwood Anderson
does the same thing in the introduction to his work,
Winesburg, Ohio. The first piece, called "The Book of the
Grotesque", is told from the first person point of view. But
after this introduction, Anderson chooses not to allow the
first person to narrate the work. Anderson and Hemingway
both wrote collections of short stories told in the third
person, and the intrusion of the first person narrator in these
two pieces is unsettling. In both instances, though, the reader
is left with a much more absorbing story; one in which the
reader is, in fact, a main character. With the exception of
"My Old Man", which is entirely in the first person , and "On
the Quai at Smyrna", which is only possibly in the first
person, there is just one instance in In Our Time in which a
character speaks in the first person. It occurs in "Big
Two-Hearted River: Part II", an intensely personal story
which completely immerses the reader in the actions and
thoughts of Nick Adams. Hemingway's utilization of the
omniscient third person narrator allows the reader to
visualize all of Nick's actions and surroundings, which would
have been much more difficult to accomplish using first
person narration. Nick is seen setting up his camp in "Big
Two-Hearted River: Part I" in intimate detail, from choosing
the perfect place to set his tent to boiling a pot of coffee
before going to sleep. The story is completely written the in
third person and is full of images, sounds, and smells. In "Big
Two-Hearted River: Part II" Hemingway exactly describes
Nick's actions as he fishes for trout. Details of his fishing trip
are told so clearly that the reader is almost an active
participant in the expedition instead of someone reading a
story. He carefully and expertly finds grasshoppers for bait,
goes about breakfast and lunch-making, and sets off into the
cold river. By being both inside and outside Nick's thoughts,
the reader can sense precisely the drama that Hemingway
wishes to bring to trout fishing. Nick catches one trout and
throws it back to the river because it is too small. When he
hooks a second one, it is an emotional battle between man
and fish. Nick tries as hard as he can, but the fish snaps the
line and escapes. Then, as Nick thinks about the fate of the
trout which got away, Hemingway writes, "He felt like a
rock, too, before he started off. By God, he was a big one.
By God, he was the biggest one I ever heard of." This
sudden switch to first-person narration is startling to the
reader. Until this point Hemingway had solely used third
person narration, but he did it so well that the reader feels as
one with Nick. It is not definite whether this is Nick or
Hemingway speaking. It could easily be either of the two.
Hemingway doesn't include, "he thought," or, "he said to
himself," and so it is unclear. The result is the same
regardless. Using first person narration at this point serves to
make the story more alive, more personal. It jolts the reader
into realizing the humanity of Nick; he is no longer the object
of a story but a real person. If Nick is making so much stir
over it that he...

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