Seminar Discussion of Hemingway, Week One

Berger: “Can’t you give her anything to make her stop screaming?”
--he seems pretty comfortable, confident at the beginning but seems to want nothing to do with it by the end.
--Nick felt quite sure he would never die. “This shows his insecurity about death; a nice prerequisite to his attitude about death in “The Killers.” There, he values life and he feels that it needs protection—he takes a RISK to warn him. He is surprised that Ole Anderson that this man is willing to wait around and get killed. This is a good correlation to Indian Camp – he still thinks he won’t die and can’t figure out why this man feels this way.

Petras:

There’s a lot of great contrasting imagery (e.g. the darkness into which the boats travel) between life and death in the Indian Camp. Leans his head against his father, whom he trusts absolutely; doesn’t look at the birth itself)
--Lots of focus on the unknown that Nick doesn’t want to accept. He is still very naïve in his thinking at the end.
--Full views of the man’s cut throat and her open stomach—what does he see.

Burggraf:

I also looked at the part where he says he wouldn’t die. I saw religious themes here—after death comes new life. Uncle George/Bass both leave but will come back, appear briefly then disappear—lots of circles and cycles, including the sun, which will come back.
Elton John: “The Circle of Life”

Jacobs:

“Her screams are not important”—I was interested in how silence is important here—death?

Nahlik

“I mean, you can’t scream if you’re dead” just saying.

Haggerty
The first couple paragraphs of End of Something—specifically the mill, which is now shut down. There are no more trees left to cut—just ruins and wasteland. This is like Marge and Nick. She wants more than he can offer. Isn’t love fun anymore she asks? No, he says. After she leaves, he feels empty, lays on the blanket—just remains much like the “broken white limestone foundation” of the mill.


Hogrebe

In order for the lumber mill to have substance, it needs fuel, commodities—like the relationship, it has been used up. No longer a purpose for it to exist. Lumber town a metaphor for relationship.

Potter
Instead of connecting the deterioration of the relationship to the mill, I connected it to wood/logs/logging. When, for instance, she says on the boat, “there’s our old ruin, Nick,” she’s ironically pointing out their own relationship.

Also, wood connected to manliness. Axes—connection back to Indian Camp, Doc and doctor’s wife. Why is he even mentioning his ax wound? The Doc/wife story is all about driftwood and about the doctor getting humiliated over it.

Dell’Orco?
End of Something: Fishing: They go from the shallows to the serious darkness to fishing from the shore. Why would he choose rainbow trout of all fish? These implies joy, happiness, promise, pots of gold! (not without me lucky charms!)—they can’t get it. They aren’t even striking.

Kuebel
Relationship with Marge and Nick compared to relationship with Doctor and wife. Very similar: both Nick and Doc are terse in their choice of words; both looking for freedom from things that paralyze them, hold them back---the doctor’s walk away from home and then into the woods at the end is part of his attempt to escape these bonds.