Through the short stories, Nick’s perspective on relationships was changed by his family and friends. In the short story, “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife”, Nick is shown how to “treat” a woman by his father. Nick’s mother is just ignored and in a way is looked down upon in their household. When his mother says to Nick’s father, “If you see Nick, dear, will you tell him his mother wants to see him?”, he just “forgets” about telling Nick and allows his son to go hunting with him. Nick learns from this his experiences with his father that women aren’t important. Hemingway also uses clues to show that women don’t have a significant role by using a phrase such as “Then he heard his wife’s voice from the darkened room.” These words show that women in this time where never in the “light”, always hidden from view and never listened to and always i

Nick, as the protagonist, is a classic fictional character who undergoes and epiphany. His voyage from a young naïve boy into an educated man emphasizes the importance of life experiences in an individual’s maturing process. The target audience, including male youths, can relate to this change. Perhaps Douglas Adams best describes maturing and aging when he says, “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” Hopefully adolescents can assert this in their change into adulthood, as a round person like Nick Adams.

In “The Three-Day Blow”, Nick’s view of women is again corrupted by Bill, Nick’s childhood best friend. Bill says to Nick, “Once a man’s married he’s absolutely bitched,” and “You’ve seen the guys that get married”. Bill is trying to demonstrate to Nick that women would only hinder his lifestyle, something with which he would not like to be involved. Nick’s ideas of women are finally changed in “Cross-Country Snow”. He has impregnated a woman and is now taking responsibility and by marring her. He has become a mature young man and has to learn for him-self how to treat women instead of doing what he has been told. His decision no longer allows him to ski across Europe as he would like. “Big Two-Hearted River” shows Nick alone, and trying to find a feeling that is familiar to him. Hemingway leads the reader to believe that him and his wife have separated because she nor Nick’s son is on the camping trip. Various people throughout the stories have altered Nic

Some topics in this essay:
Two-Hearted River”, Camp” Nick, River” Nick, Wife” Nick, Bill Nick, Ernest Hemingway’s, Chapter VI, Ad Nick, Douglas Adams, Battler” Nick, two-hearted river”, “big two-hearted, “big two-hearted river”, nick learns, nick’s view, two-hearted river” nick, boy educated, camp” nick, forget death, death inevitable, river” nick, naïve boy educated, nick’s perspective,