Dennis and Whitney. Faulkner and Hemingway.

I always enjoy reading Dennis's and Whitney's blog. I feel like both of them offer completely new fresh perspectives. I really liked Dennis's last point in his blog this week, "Another main point of irony in the story is that the only person who really shows any amount of being a good person throughout the story is left alone in the woods and feeling alone and sad at the end." This is a curious ending. I guess it goes to show something about bravery. Being brave and doing the right thing may not always make you the most friends. I think back to playground arguments and if you are the one to tattle, even if you have a really good reason for tattling, you will most likely be shunned. It would be interesting to see what would happen if Sarty's warning of the barn burning did not result in the death of Abner. I wonder what consequences Sarty would have faced had Abner lived.

My first time through reading "Big Two Hearted River" was quite different from Whitney's. I just thought, "Oh what a nice story about being at peace." I failed to look between the lines for what Hemingway was actually getting at. Of course after class discussion I realized that this is not just the tale of a solitary man living the dream, but that of a veteran confronting his inner struggle to make sense of what he has seen and lived. I really appreciate how Whitney picked up on this small detail, "Nick's heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling." That does present a very significant question, "What old feeling?" I definitely think this story is about more than going fishing, and as Whitney's blog post continues, she does too.