Our society has become increasingly more keen on the thought of warfare. More and more people especially in USA have a very calm and naive approach on the subject. This has a negative effect on the help for the injured soldiers, both physically and mentally. The short story Big two-hearted river is a sample of how soldiers have to repair and find inner peace by themself.

Character:
Nick is a very strong minded man, he keeps on going until he has achieved his goal. He must be a physically strong man, because of the strength needed to carry the load of his backpack. He is in a situation, where he for some reason need to punish himself and push his body to the limit. We can see this in his own quotation: “ “I´ve got a right to eat this kind of stuff, if I´m willing to carry it” Nick said”
The narrater finishes it by saing: “ He did not speak again.” (Page 5, line 1 and 2)
He shows his mental strength and weakness here. His strength because he is able to carry his own food all day and wait until he arives to eat it, eventhough it might be tempting. He is weak because he doesn´t just eat something from the forest or river.

The setting:
The area where Nick is hicking have a lot of symbolic places wich references to the battlefield in the 1st. World war. It might look like he is out on a fishing trip, but really he´s out to repair his mind after the war, because it seems like he keeps seeing places from the war, like:

“The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire” (Page 1 line , “You would have to keep almost level with the ground to move al all”(page 13 line 7-8) and “ In the swamp fishing was a tragic adventure.”(page 13 line 14)

The battleground looked very much like the town of Seney when he arivved in it. The left overs from the hotel was like a bombed area, with the chipped stone and split by the fire. The swamp is like the trenches where you have to crawl, to stay alive. The swamp will take you down too. That is also the reason why he doesn´t want to go there, it reminds him of the war and death.

The imagery used to describe nature and The litterary style and technique of the author:
When the 3rd person omniscient writer talk about the nature, he uses a lot of space to describe every little detail. He also manage to make it Nick´s story. It´s clear that most of the places Nick sees are from the war, even though he´s long away from any war.

“The stream went back in under the leaves. There were always trout in a place like that. Nick did not care about fishing that hole. He was sure he would get hooked in the branches.”
(Page 12 line 7)

In this quotation we see that it´s like the river is the enemy and every little fish is a soldier, sent up stream against Nick to fight in the harsh invironment the river create. Nick knows where the trout(soldier) hides. But he does not care about fishing that trout, he nows that it will be dangerous and that he would get hooked in the branches. Eventhougt the trout under the leaves might seem to be an easy target, the concequiences might exceed the price of the trout (soldier). The 3rd person omniscient is clear when the narrater goes from objective, directly inside Nick´s head.

There is a clear reference to the fact that Nick has been to war in Big two-hearted river and that he´s coming back to a recognisable area, this shows when the narrater presents Nicks first impression of the town: “Nick looked at the burned-over strech of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there.”(1. st page, line 5-6)

The fact that Nick expects stuff to be there and that he recognise a river wich properbly changes size over the year, shows that he knows the place and that he might even have been living there.

Themes and messages:
You could name many variation on themes, but I have chosen Nature vs. War to be the main themes in this short story. Everything is about the difference between beeing in war, especially WW1, and beeing in the nature all by yourself. You can´t be sure that anyone will find youand save you and the risk of death is there all the time in both cases.
The message is more about what I wrote in the beginning. What will happen to a person after he or she has been to war? With a focus mainly on the mental problems.

The Title:
The title The two-hearted river can be analysed in different directions, and I think you need to devide the river in two because of the two hearts. The river does have a calm and furrius side. This could be the way to analyse it, but you can also say that it can kill you as easely as it can provide food in your stomach. My analysis on the title is a third option. I see the river as one heart having a good and a bad side just like a normal heart has two sides. The second heart comes from the man, in this case it´s Nick. He´s willing to fight the river and catch all its soldiers for dinner. He can be calm and send the fish back if it´s a young fish, but if it put up a fight, he will try to catch it and kill it.

The end:
He knows that he need to take up the fight with the swamp, but he also knows that he will have to