Week 9

First off I decided to discuss a few things I found interesting in Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River. Yay!

In the prelude to the story we learn that Nick has been a very prominent character in Hemingway’s writing, I am wondering why this is?

What I found most interesting was the way that the grasshoppers were so detailed very early into the story. Nick has this grasshopper wedge its way into his sock and from there a paragraph describes these hoppers “They were not the big grasshoppers with yellow and black or red and black wings whirring out from their black wing sheathing and whirring as they fly up. These were just ordinary hoppers but all sooty and black in color.”(Hemingway 982)

And all this time we are gathering this description about these hoppers before Nick finally removes this grasshopper from his sock. Which makes me wonder how long he had let that grasshopper tag along before he finally decided to actually remove it? Then Nick contemplates further on the identity of these hoppers and decides this “He realized that the fire must have come the year before but the grasshoppers were all black now. He wondered how long they would stay this way.” (Hemingway 982)

Okay so now he finally, after all of this decides he is (for real) going to remove this grass hopper and at this point after already contemplating the reason for this color he actually looks at it. Actually puts a visual to all of his thoughts about this bug. “He turned him up, all his legs walking in the air, and looked at his jointed belly. Yes, it was black too, iridescent where the back and head were dusty.” (Hemingway 982)

So after such a long inquiry of the bugs visual being and then put a visual to his conclusion Nick simply tosses the bug away saying “Go on Hopper, fly away somewhere.” (Hemingway 982) Notice though how the word Hopper is capitalized, like a name would be. Why does the word Hopper become capitalized? Names are very important, why would this insect receive a name? Nick lets this Hopper go “He tossed the grasshopper up into the air and watched him sail away to a charcoal stump across the road.” (Hemingway 982)

I think just the description and the identity of the grasshoppers play a huge role into the character of Nick, and his own personal identity. But how?