"Great close reading of this section, and you raise some really interesting questions. Do you see any similarities between Nick and the Hopper? What are we to make of all the focus and attention that the story pays to them? The story tells us they're important because they get some much space, but the story doesn't tell us *why* they're important (which is often one of the frustrating and brilliant things about Hemingway).
What do you think?"
I know I am supposed to responding
to my group members, but I thought that I could further my argument
and understanding of the reading if I elaborated on this.
One
of the things my group discussed about the Hoppers in this story was that they
represented the Soldiers that Nick had previously served with. I think the
reason that they were charred in color was meant to be a representation of the
men and the weight that they had to carry, with the deaths of their friends and
others they had grown so close with. The black coal color was covering the
original colors of the hopper, just like the weight of the war had changed the
men and their “colors”.
When Nick originally has the Hopper
lodged into his sock I got this feeling that it was signifying the war always
being something lodged into his life pestering him. Then when he picks it up
and really looks at it and looks at the surrounds charred just like this Hopper
and it may have been a subconscious reminder.
I also get this feeling that when
Nick is finally done examining the Hopper and tosses it back into the charred
tree stump and the Hopper blends in with the mess; that it is him trying to let
it go, maybe letting a fallen mate or even the memory of it all fall back into
his mind and trying to make it all only a memory and leaving all of those men
exactly where they lay never having any continuum.
Of course I must remind that this
is just me rambling on about my crazy ideas. So take what you will.
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