How we cite our quotes: (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Seney was burned, the country was burned over and changed, but it did not matter. It could not all be burned. (I.8)
You’ll notice that Hemingway says “burned over and changed” here, as though the two are a bit synonymous. It sounds like change in this case is not a very happy thing. After all, this fire decimated an entire town and turned all the grasshoppers black. But Nick is being surprisingly optimistic. Is this situation hopeless? This passage tells us that it’s not.
Quote #5
They said good-bye and all felt bad. It broke up the trip. They never saw Hopkins again. That was a long time ago on the Black River. (I.36)
Ah, reminiscing about the past. If only we could pause time on the good bits of life. Change is appearing in the role of that inevitable thing called time. With time at the helm, can things ever not change? And we’re not even talking about aging here; in this passage, Nick is thinking about time in terms of before the war and after.
Quote #6
He washed the trout in the stream. When he held them back up in the water they looked like live fish. Their color was not gone yet. (II.63)
The imagery of the fish as still living seems pretty hopeful, but it’s also a bit puzzling. After all, Nick is the one who killed the fish. Think if, instead of this passage, the story went something like this: “The fish looked dead. So completely dead. Dang, thought Nick, those are the deadest fish I have ever seen.” Then we might be compelled to think mortality. Instead, the idea of the fish not really being “dead” (as though their spirits are somehow still there) makes us feel that life is still a possibility—maybe not for the fish, but for Nick.