A Glorfied Fishing Trip

This post is on Hemingway's "A Big Two-Hearted River".

What amazed me most (and yet, I should have seen it coming) was my view on fishing and even camping before and after reading this story. My approaching thought was Oh great, another fishing story. Booooooring! Yet I found that while reading, I started growing this desire to attempt fishing--not for the first time, I promise; although I'm not close to the Idahoan of the year award for outdoor adventures.

The way he writes it emphasizes all the satisfying (and a few disappointing) aspects of the long trek, the camp set up, and the fishing trip. What he doesn't write about is (I'm about to go all girly on you): the stupid side aches from hiking, the time it takes to make the bed and camp, the awful bugs that crawl on you and bother you (I mean, he's by the river!) and how uncomfortable no shower would be.

With that said though, I still have this random desire to set up a camp and fish--the hard core fisherman way. Will I ever do it? Probably not anytime soon if at all. But it amazed me how Nick's, the character, satisfaction of the entire journey could provoke such thoughts in me. I know it's "just a story" but words are incredibly powerful--spoken and on paper.

Some other questions I had about the story included this main one: "Why did he go to all that effort just to fish?" I don't know if it's a guy thing, but i couldn't understand it. There were little hints that he was possibly A) running away from something or someone, B) leaving his previous life and starting completely over, or C) he was just on his way somewhere and stopped for a week long fishing trip.

One thought I did have was that he really did go to ALL the troubles to get to that very spot, with every intention of returning to his home, wherever it may be. Regardless of all that, this story is a favorite--not by me, but by many. I wonder if people just want to mentally escape with Nick on this glorified fishing trip if that's just all they get.

Midterm Essay Topic

Midterms...Is it really in two weeks? I need to manage my time better. Okay, topic. My first choice of topic would be to Examine the role of identity in multiple texts. I feel like identity has such an extravagant makeup that it could possibly take (how long is this paper?)...five pages at least. However, I don't think I'm that good of a writer so I would like to pair along with this....wait for it...the development of American/societal values throughout history (and the history of the Literature we've read thus far).

This idea popped into my brain when we were talking about midterm topics in class. I don't know why it did so, but it seemed like a cool idea so I wrote it down. I think that the character's intended or unintended identity has some sort of foundation laid inside of the values of the character or story. So, this topic match-up might be a horrible idea but I'd like to give it a try, if there's hope that it will turn out good.

Thoughts?

Response to Ryan Yost's post

"Red Hot Cajun Love" I like it. I don't understand the last line of your post: "the confines of marriage shouldn't always come from the needs of the individual." My dyslexia could be keeping me from reading it in the way you meant it. I agree with you that this issue has been controversial from, basically, the beginning of time. I think that it is deemed acceptable and/or appropriate by more and more people for many reasons: culture changes, desensitization, media resources, etc.
Regarding the last line, I would agree that the "happiness" referred is probably the bliss ignorance of the spouses along with the satisfaction and relief from Alcee and Calixa. Unfortunately I don't have much to say about this essay--no relation to your response at all. I'm sure this won't be the first time I'll feel that way about a piece of literature though. : )

The Storm

Alright, here is my genuinely honest opinion of the story The Storm: I despised it.

Now, with that out of the way, I can proceed with the blog post!

The ending, to me, was unrealistic. I honestly don't think that there is a person who (no matter how awful or lacking the marriage) could have an affair and not be negatively affected by it in any way--but especially for the way the marriage was depicted in the story.

Personally, I believe that if this situation was real, there are far better ways to solve marital problems than adultery. And with the closing sentence, that seems to be the thought here: that this little fling is what she (or they) needed to go back to their spouse and love that person in a new and better way: to better appreciate their spouse.

I'm not naive in thinking that this type of situation doesn't happen. It happens too often, and my belief is that it's not OK or healthy. The author seems to create this story to say the opposite of that. And I emphasize "seems". I could be reading it in the wrong way. But that is my conclusion.

Getting Started

I have never taken a literature course in my life until now. Even the word literature overwhelms me a bit; that is probably because it is an unfamiliar topic. When someone mentions the word "science", "physics", "mechanics", or any three-syllable word in that genre, my brain usually checks out. But when I hear the word "literature", my thoughts go something like: "I have no knowledge in that area, but I'd like it if I did."

Just learning how literature has evolved from the Romantic period helps me wrap my brain around the concept. And I know I'm probably making it more confusing for myself. In reality, not many people like feeling like they're out of the loop. So, this is me jumping in the loop :)

Romanticism: My first thought about this style of writing was that it was either an escape, or the overly dramatic. I suppose it could be both. It makes sense that during war, the dreams of the people are what keep them going. Is this a trend? I know during traumatic times (even in the personal life), people cling to what is most important to them. Is that some of the essence of romantic writing?