Blog 11. "Fathers and Sons." "He's Hard to Describe."

    "What was my grandfather like?  I can't hardly remember him except that he gave me an air rifle and an American flag when I came over from France.  What was he like?"
    "He's hard to describe.  He was a great hunter and fisherman and he had wonderful eyes." (267)

Clarence Hemingway:

Clarence and Ernest when Ernest was 18:

"Fathers and Sons" is from Winner Take Nothing (1933) when Hemingway was 34 and is the last story he wrote about Nick Adams.  Clarence Hemingway committed suicide in 1928.  And so we end the Nick Adams stories the way Hemingway began them: Nick and Henry Adams and Nick and his own son who pesters his father to see his grandfather's grave.  Two fathers and two young sons. 

Be sure to quote in one of the responses below.

1.  Your reaction to the story—and why?  What stuck out to you in it—a moment, a scene, a line?

2.  How is Nick as a father?  How does he compare with—or contrast with—Doctor Adams back in "Indian Camp"?

3.  What's this story about?  If you thought little happened in "Big Two Hearted River," less technically happens here as Nick drives with his sleeping son and reminisces about his father and his relationship with an Indian girl Trudy.  Yet there is so much more action as Nick lets his memory roam—he clearly is better than he was back in "BTHR."  So what's the point of this story?  How do the memories connect into a whole—or do they? 

4.  What was your favorite story that you read in this short term class?  And why? 

That's it, folks.  I had a lot of fun with you in this class.  This was as intellectually rigorous as any of my long term classes—and that's saying something.  Thank you for taking this class as seriously as you did. 

Blog 10. "Cross-Country Snow." "There Isn't Any Good In Promising."

"It's hell, isn't it?" [George] said.
"No.  Not exactly," Nick said. (254)

Here's Hem and his first wife Hadley and their first child John "Bumby" Hemingway in Austria around 1925:

Schruns, Austria, where Ernest and Hadley and their friends liked to ski.

Hem and his buddies in Schruns:

"Cross-Country Snow" was published in In Our Time, which means it precedes the publication of the war stories we read, but this is clearly a Nick who is older (and not the Nick of "The Three-Day Blow").  Helen is not Marjorie, who Nick thought about going to Italy with in "The End of Something."  George is not Bill—although they seem to have a similar friendship.  And once again war is not mentioned in the story—yet I do wonder why Nick "can't Telemark with [his] leg" (250).  A war injury?

Hemingway married Hadley Richardson, seven years his senior, in 1921(when he was 22) and Hadley give birth to John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway—who would be called Jack—in 1923.  They divorced in 1927 after Hadley discovered Ernest was having an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer.  Hemingway married Pauline in 1927.

For one of the questions below, please quote from the story. 200-250 words.  Some of you have not been meeting that requirement. 

1.   Your response to the story?  What moment, image, or line particularly struck you or stayed with you?

2.  For 9th and 10th graders: on 253:

                            They ate strudel and drank the rest of the wine.
                            George leaned back against the wall and shut his eyes.
                               "Wine always makes me feel this way," he said.
                               "Feel bad?" Nick asked.
                               "No. I feel good, but funny."
                               "I know," Nick said.
                               "Sure,"said George.  
Nick and George share some feeling.  It's not being drunk—this is not Nick and Bill.  But going back to the Iceberg Theory, the answer—what is the feeling George has that Nick recognizes—should be discernible.  So what do you think he's feeling that's "good but funny"?  If you agree with a classmate, add to their reasons: don't simply say you agree, ok?

2.  For 11th and 12th graders:  same page and 254:
                              "Will you go back to the States?"
                              "I guess so."
                              "Do you want to?"
                              "No."
                              "Does Helen?"
                              "No."
                              George sat silent.  He looked at the empty bottle and the empty glasses.
                              "It's hell, isn't it?"  he said.
                              "No.  Not exactly," Nick said.
                              "Why not?"
                              "I don't know," Nick said.
What do you think is "not exactly" the "hell" George says it is?  (Of course, if it's not exactly hell, it's pretty darn close to it)  Again, this is the Iceberg Theory; and as with the question for the 9th and 10th graders, don't simply agree with each other; elaborate and expand. 

3.  What's the story about?  What is Hemingway looking at here, writing about, in this simple story of two friends skiing?

That's it.  Four more days of short term.  Or as I call it now, "short te—."  That's pronounced "shore-ta!"

Blog 9. "Big Two-Hearted River." "He Liked To Open Cans."

That line above—"He liked to open cans"—is my favorite line in all of Hemingway.  It might be my favorite sentence in all of American literature.  Scoff if you will.  But it's the perfect encapsulation for me of the Iceberg Theory at work—and working. The story was first published in In Our Time in 1926.  It predates "Now I Lay Me" and "A Way You'll Never Be," though Phillip Young has it following them in the chronology of Nick's life.  Which would mean that this is an after war story. And it is universally read as an after-war story; it is Nick back from Europe and the war and his attempt at healing from the war and his wounds.  It is considered one of his great works.  And students who read it almost always say, "What?  Nothing happens!"

Here is Hem fishing in the 1930s.  And not in Michigan:

And here he is fishing for trout in Michigan:

Hem liked to fish.

1. Reaction to the story?  And why?

2.  I know some of you are thinking, "But nothing happens in this damn story!"  Well, something happens: how is Nick different—perhaps better—at the end than he is at the beginning of the story?  And what happened to make him better?  Quote a couple times in your response.

3.  How do we know Nick is struggling with something in the story?  Speak specifically to how you know this.

4.  "He liked to open cans." Why does opening cans maybe make Nick feel good?

I hope you all enjoyed your little vacation.  Stay warm.  See you—I think—tomorrow.

Snow Day.

Hey all. I don't know if we'll have school tomorrow—the cold isn't going away and the roads will still be slippery.  So let's move everything back one day.  For Friday, read "Big Two Hearted River," both parts 1 and 2.  There will be a blog up for it tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your day and stay warm. 

Blog 8. "A Way You'll Never Be." "I Can See You've Been Wounded." 9th and 12th Graders Only.

This is Hemingway in the American uniform that Nick is showing the Italians in the story:

And when Nick talks about—confusingly—advancing the attack on page 160, the attack might look like this: a clip from the 1981 movie Gallipoli by Peter Weir about the New Zealand/Australian/British campaign in Turkey—then The Ottoman Empire—in 1915.

"A Way You'll Never Be" was first published in 1933 in the short story collection Men Without Women.

1.  What moment, image, or quote stayed with you from this story?  Why?  Go ahead and quote from the story.

2.  Today we were talking about Hemingway's writing style and writing choices.  How does this story—stylistically—compare to the first stories we read?  Do you like this new style more than the older style?  Why?

3.  When do you first become aware that Nick has gone "nutty" (160)?  And when do you become aware of how badly wounded he has become—the moment or line that tells you he is truly psychologically sick?  It could be the same answer as the first question—but probably not.

That's good.  See you all tomorrow. 

Blog 7. "Now I Lay Me." "If I Ever Shut My Eyes in The Dark, and Let Myself Go, My Soul Would Go Out of My Body." 10th and 11th Graders Only.

Ernest Hemingway in Italy, 1918.

Italian soldiers, circa 1916.

"Then you ought to get married, Signor Tenente.  Then you wouldn't worry."
"I don't know." (151)

As I said in class on the first day of the term, 19 year old Hemingway served as a Red Cross ambulance driver on the Italian front in the First World War. The Italians were part of the Allied Powers—Great Britain, France, Russia, and ultimately the Unites States—fighting the Central Powers—Germany and Austria-Hungary, and later The Ottoman Empire.  On the Italian front, the conflict was primarily with Austria-Hungary.  Ernest Hemingway was delivering chocolate and cigarettes to troops at the front when a mortar shell exploded nearby.  His legs were peppered with metal shrapnel.
As reported in the Hemingway Resource Center (http://www.lostgeneration.com/ww1.htm):

He was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Valor with the official Italian citation reading: "Gravely wounded by numerous pieces of shrapnel from an enemy shell, with an admirable spirit of brotherhood, before taking care of himself, he rendered generous assistance to the Italian soldiers more seriously wounded by the same explosion and did not allow himself to be carried elsewhere until after they had been evacuated." Hemingway described his injuries to a friend of his: "There was one of those big noises you sometimes hear at the front. I died then. I felt my soul or something coming right out of my body, like you'd pull a silk handkerchief out of a pocket by one corner. It flew all around and then came back and went in again and I wasn't dead any more."

This was the seminal experience in Hemingway's life.  It became the subject of his second and third novels and the center of several of his stories (the Nick Adams ones we will read).  Hemingway became a journalist after the war and covered several armed conflicts, primarily the Greco-Turkish War; he went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and as a forty-something writer-turned-war-correspondent he went to Europe in World War Two.

So:

1. Your reaction to "Now I Lay Me"?   What moment or image stayed with you?  Quote in your response.

2.  How wounded is Nick here?  And how do we know this? Pick one detail that shows what's happened to him.  Try to not repeat what others write.

3.  As in all of the stories we've read, there are mysteries to this story.  Why Nick won't use salamanders or crickets as bait; the particular memory he has of home and his mother and father; why he is so unreceptive  to his orderly John's urging him to get married.  Emma C. and Matthew: write about the significance of why he won't use the lizards and crickets for bait.  Mary and Nicholas and Chloe: write about why he uses the story of Nick's parents—how does it fit in this story; and Caroline, Isaiah, and Jack: why not get married? Stick to the story, folks.  

We'll see everyone tomorrow. 

Blog 6. "The End of Something" and "The Three Day Blow." "Isn't Love Any Fun?"

You can do this assignment tonight or tomorrow during class.  They will be due by the end of class tomorrow.

"...'No," Nick said.  Marjorie stood up.  Nick sat there, his head in his hands. (204)

"...I'm through.  We won't ever speak about it again.  You don't want to think about it.  You might get back into it again." (215)

In The Nick Adams Stories, Phillip Young places these stories after Nick's war experience (which we'll read about next week).  I have changed the order: I just can't accept these stories as being the Nick we will read about in war: wounded, traumatized, even...crazy.  He could be right though: we hear Nick talking about going to Italy with Marjorie in "The Three-Day Blow."  But I stand by my choice. 

 1.  Does Nick in these stories seem like a young man who has been to war?  Why or why not?  Quote in your answer.

2.  What do you think of Nick in these stories?  Like?  Dislike?  Why?

3.  Bill: Nick's good friend.  He is all about Nick's best welfare isn't he—and there's nothing self-serving about him here.  Agree or disagree—and why?  Quote in your answer.

4.  If you were Nick and had to choose between Bill and Marjorie, which would you pick—and why?

That's good enough.  See you all tomorrow!