A WAY YOU'LL NEVER BE and BIG TWO HEARTED RIVER

 I have enjoyed Hemingway's writing since young. The first English book I encountered was Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' in abridged version. When I came in touch with his actual book, I found his style of writing very appealing. For today's American Literature class, we had to read two short stories by Hemingway, 'A Way you'll Never Be' and 'Big Two Hearted River'. Those stories were very interesting indeed just like 'The Old Man and the Sea'.

 'A Way you'll Never Be' is about a protagonist called Nick Adams. He, recovering from a traumatic head wound, bicycles from Fornaci to Fossalta di Piave, the scene of his wounding. When he is naming every piece of military equipment and every personal effect scattered among the bodies in the battle scene, a lieutenant approaches and threatens Nick to keep his identification card. Then Nick demands to see Captain Paravicini.

 This story is about Nick trying to resolve his crisis of personal identity. He desperately searches for evident clues about his true identity, but he is only confronted with many obstacles.

 It is true that in today's society, we have trouble identifying ourselves. There are so many fake images that we have created in order to hide us from the others that we ourselves have hard time defining our real portrayals. To some people, we show our first image of being nice, warm, and caring. Towards the second group, we show them how cynical, cool, and indifferent we are.

 This may be the result of our society turning more and more violent. It is true that more violence can be seen in today's world compared to the old times.

 Why is this so? This is due to the world spinning faster and faster compared to before. People are so busy competing with one another that they do not have any time to care for others. Just like I have mentioned in my previous reflection of 'The Garden Lodge', this is the tragic side of modernism.

 We should spend more time thinking to ourselves what is causing us to hide our true selves from the outer world. We should learn how to trust others and love others.

COMMENTS


Jeong Yunjo: Hey. It's a nice review with many great opinions. Now, how about relating this story with its historical literary backgrounds? Like, try relating this story with modernism.

Hyunseok Lee: Fine and comfortable introduction, good analysis toward the protagonist. However, you can say more than that you had written in the last part of the essay. Come up with some symbols such as grasshoppers. Plus, it would be great if you introduce personal story related to the story.