Title
Whose Nature? Differing Narrative Perspectives in Hemingway’s "Big Two-Hearted River"
Document Type
Book Chapter
Annotation
Laments the critical tendency to provide extratextual explanations for Nick’s state of mind, arguing instead that the story is of a man seeking solace through nature. Employs Gérard Genette’s narrative theory to suggest the presence of both a third-person narrator and Nick’s perspective to project two different views of nature: Nick’s need to control the natural environment and the narrator’s openness and respect for nature’s unpredictability. Concludes that Nick’s mental health is contingent on his ability to relinquish this need for control.
Published in
Date
1999
Pages
19-29
COinS
Citation
Fleming, Robert, ed. Hemingway and the Natural World. Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1999.