The Big Two-Hearted River

1. To me it seemed like the trout in the story would represent the soldiers who were being fought. Nick takes plenty of time getting ready to go fishing which would symbolize all of the waiting that was done in the trenches between the fighting. Then, when Nick is actually catching a big fish, he feels excitement, representing the adrenaline rush that would come with battle. Hemingway also talks about the burnt landscape before Nick gets to the stream which would be old battlefields where everyone is already dead or gone. I think the brown grasshoppers are a representation of the people who haven't seen much of the war, so they aren't very affected by it. The black grasshoppers are the people who are very affected by the war, but they have found a way to adapt it into their way of life. To me it seemed like Nick was trying to start over somehow. He started out traveling and seeing how far he could go, then when he found a suitable spot, he seemed to settle down and was content just to set up camp and go fishing.

2. This short story would be a good introduction to "The Sun Also Rises" because both are about WW1 without directly seeming like they have anything to do with them. In both stories, you can tell what the author is trying to say about WW1 by what the characters do.