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Nov 9, 2003
Big Two-Hearted River: Summary
R. Moore
First published in 1925 as part of Hemingway's In Our Time collection, "Big Two-Hearted River" takes place in the forests of northern Michigan a year or two after the end of World War I. The main and only character in this story is Nick Adams, who we know from previous tales in the Nick Adams series. He has recently returned from the War and its horrors. Nick goes to the woods where he grew up as a boy, planning to camp and fish. As the story begins, he is dropped off in an abandoned logging town that has been burned to the ground, and watches as a train moves out of sight. This will be Nick's last contact with civilization in the story as he immerses himself in the natural world.
Nick crosses a bridge and notes how the trout in the water below steady themselves with their fins, adapting to the river's current. He then sees grasshoppers in the nearby fields that have turned black from living on the scorched land, but they too have adapted to their altered environment. As he moves further away from his normal life, Nick feels happy, sensing that he has left everything, including the need to think, behind him...