Big Two-Hearted River (Parts I and II) Suffering Quotes

What an amazing way to convey Nick’s anxiety! Most of us probably relate to that tense feeling in the chest. But what is “the old feeling”? Reader, it is supposed to be vague. What it does say, though, is that this is a feeling that Nick has dealt with before in his past. Maybe he hasn’t dealt with it for a while, but it’s back now. It also tells us that Nick doesn’t want to attach a name, an image, or any real description to whatever this feeling is; it seems like he’s trying to avoid it.

What’s too heavy? The pack? Is it really worth stating twice if it’s just the pack? The words burden and baggage seem appropriate here; it’s as though Nick is carrying something more than just the pack.

Riding off of the previous quote, setting up the camp seems to have lessened Nick’s burden (as represented by the pack), like, a lot. We definitely get a sense of this idea when he soon after says “That was done. He had made his camp. He was settled. Nothing could touch him” (I.26), as though not making camp was this dangerous, scary thing, and oh thank goodness now it’s done. These strangely reassuring statements are our clues that this isn’t just your average camping trip—something deeper is going on here.

No one is arguing with you, Nick. No, literally, no one is there to argue with you. Nick isn’t being delusional here and talking to his woodland creature friends (unlike some people), so of all the things that Nick could say out loud, why does he justify his right to eat the food be brought? Now, Nick doesn’t seriously think that he needs to justify eating beans that he brought along; but phrases like “I’ve got a right” and “if I’m willing to carry it” point us back to this idea of a burden again. Stretching this interpretation a little more, Nick’s words even have a bit of an army ring to them, as though Nick were repeating some argument he had while on the front in WWI.

Always ask the question: What is “it”? The glorious thing about the word “it” is that we can read it a lot of ways. It could refer to Nick’s mind, to the workings of his mind, to a thought, or to a feeling. They kind of all mean the same thing anyway. The point is, much in the same way that Nick doesn’t really specify what “all the old feeling” is, he doesn’t want to specify this either. It’s an unspeakable something that Nick really would like to suppress—as evinced by his desire to “choke” it.

Alright, that word “shock” is sticking out like two sore thumbs. Pay attention to repetitions! They aren’t accidents. Now, to get what Hemingway is getting at here, it really helps to have some historical context; namely, it helps to know some of the buzzwords from the WWI period. Ever heard of the term “shell shock”? Anyone reading Hemingway during this time period would have known about shell shock, which is what they used to call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Combat Stress Reaction (basically, physical, behavioral, and psychological trauma as a direct result of war). It would be hard to not recognize Nick’s behavior as reflective of shell shock, but when Hemingway actually introduces the word, even though it is in a completely different context, it’s another way of telling us without telling us, if you catch our drift.

In the literal context, Nick is talking about a trout. Fair enough. But it’s also a line that really jumps out at us. It isn’t just that Nick is compassionate about fish. First of all, the words “Nick thought” and “Nick said” hardly ever appear in this story; like we say in our “Narrator Point of View” section (which you should totally read), this story prefers to use free indirect discourse. So when we get a direct thought like this, it stands out. Our question for you is this: Is Nick really only talking about the trout?

Tension! Hmm, sounds like this tension could just might refer to something beyond what it literally refers to. Now, we’re not saying that everything in this story has a meaning beyond itself, but… actually, that is exactly what we’re saying. We could theoretically just read this line as a description of trying to reel in a really big fish, but that hardly seems like something worth reading about on its own, unless you happen to be super into fishing, in which case a subscription to Field and Stream would probably be more up your alley. Anyway, back to Nick. So much of this story’s action occurs underneath the literal action of the story. At this point in the narrative, we’ve already seen that Nick is bothered by something ineffable, and that he manifests his anxiety through weird reactions to physical tasks. So words like “break” and “strain” that evoke mental anxiety should become prompts for us to read metaphorically.

Wow, that’s quite a bit of excitement over a trout. Now, we’re not hating on all of you fishing enthusiasts out there; we’re just saying that this is a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think? It’s not as though there is a whole lot at stake here, other than Nick’s fishing pride. So far, we’ve seen Nick being very careful about not allowing anything to happen that might get him worked up, and now we see why.

You know what a passage like this tells us? That Nick has experienced these sensations before. That’s kind of important. We get the sense that Nick has been dealing with these feelings for a while, since he seems to be able to predict what will affect him and how he shouldn’t handle it.