Imagery And Symbolism In Ayn Rand's Big Two-Hearted

Lay Me” “[Nick] tried never to think about it” (CSS 276). If he could not preoccupy his mind another way, Nick listened to the silk worms eating. ” Nick, “[does] not remember a night on which you could not hear things” (CSS 279). Nick has adapted, by the time of “Big Two-Hearted River” He no longer needs to listen to the silk worms eating to stay awake. “It was a quiet night. The swamp was perfectly quiet” (CSS 169). Evidently, there are copious insects and animals of the “Big Two-Hearted” woods. Nick does not hear them because he is no longer dependent on them. Ironically, Burroughs believes “One seems to require less sleep in the woods… If one is awakened often during the night, as he invariably is, he does not feel that sediment of sleep

“In the swamp fishing was a tragic adventure. Nick did not want it” (CSS 180). Nick saw he would not be able to even walk through the swamp. The narrowing of the river obstructed his view, and “A big cedar slanted all the way across the stream. Beyond that the river went into a swamp …the sun did not come through” (CSS 179-80). The swamp is a dark, unpleasant place to fish, and potentially dangerous. Nick came to the woods for a restoration of self, and does not want to bother with the complications of the swamp. Even Burroughs avoids the swamp, “making detours around swampy places” (Burroughs 70). The swamp holds a sense of mystery in its ambiguity, because we cannot see it (Nickel 59-60). Nick also does not tell us what animals live there, only they adapted to maneuver through the solid, low branches (CSS 179). Although Nick does not feel able to fish the swamp, he ends the story deciding, “There were plenty of days coming when he could fish the swamp” (CSS 180). His ambition to tackle the swamp at a later time suggests hopefulness and redemption for Nick as the story concludes.

“Fishing was [Burroughs] first and most enduring form of pilgrimage to the heart of nature” (Stoneback 55). Burroughs and Hemingway share attentiveness and exactitude in their writing, specifically for landscapes. Although Hemingway’s landscapes are damaged in a way the landscapes of Burroughs could not comprehend, the “healing freshness” of trout streams leaves a lasting effect on them both (Burroughs