Nick Adams is the name that Hemingway gave to the fictional persona, largely autobiographical, whom he often wrote about. Like Hemingway himself, Nick is the son of a doctor (“The Indian Camp”; “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife”); he relishes fishing and hunting in the northern peninsula of Michigan (“Big […]
Read more Character Analysis Nick AdamsSummary and Analysis The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Summary Harry, a writer, and his wife, Helen, are stranded while on safari in Africa. A bearing burned out on their truck, and Harry is talking about the gangrene that has infected his leg when he did not apply iodine after he scratched it. As they wait for a rescue […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Snows of KilimanjaroSummary and Analysis A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
Summary Late in the early morning hours, in a Spanish cafe, an old man drinks brandy. A young waiter is angry; he wishes that the old man would leave so that he and an older waiter could close the cafe and go home. He insults the deaf old man and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis A Clean, Well-Lighted PlaceSummary and Analysis Hills Like White Elephants
Summary In the early 1920s, an American man and a girl, probably nineteen or twenty years old, are waiting at a Spanish railway station for the express train that will take them to Madrid. They drink beer as well as two licorice-tasting anis drinks, and finally more beer, sitting in […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Hills Like White ElephantsSummary and Analysis The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Summary It is noon. Francis Macomber is on an African safari; Macomber is thirty-five years old, a trim, fit man who holds a number of big-game fishing records. However, at the moment, he has just demonstrated that he is a coward. However, members of the safari are acting as though […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Short Happy Life of Francis MacomberSummary and Analysis Big Two-Hearted River: Part II
Summary Hemingway recounts in precise detail Nick’s rituals of preparation for fishing before he wades into the river. He successfully catches two trout and begins to gather sufficient courage so that in the days ahead, he can easily fish across the river, in the dark swamp, a symbol of Nick’s […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Big Two-Hearted River: Part IISummary and Analysis Big Two-Hearted River: Part I
Summary Emotionally wounded and disillusioned by World War I, Nick Adams returns to his home and leaves for the north Michigan woods on a camping trip. He leaves by himself, hoping that the routine of selecting a good place to camp, setting up a tent, fixing meals, and preparing for […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Big Two-Hearted River: Part ISummary and Analysis In Another Country
Summary Trying to regain use of a knee that was wounded during World War I, Nick is in an Italian hospital for therapy, riding a kind of tricycle that his doctor promises will keep the muscles elastic. Nick is dubious of the machine and the therapy, as is a friend […]
Read more Summary and Analysis In Another CountrySummary and Analysis A Way You’ll Never Be
Summary Nick Adams has been wounded in Italy during World War I and is suffering from shell-shock, or post-traumatic stress syndrome. He is plagued by nightmares, in which he sees the eyes of the Austrian soldier who shot him. Nick’s friend, the Italian Captain Paravicini, believes that Nick’s head wound […]
Read more Summary and Analysis A Way You’ll Never BeSummary and Analysis The Killers
Summary One winter evening, around dusk, while he is sitting at the end of a counter and talking to George, the manager of a diner in Summit, Illinois, a small town south of Chicago, Nick Adams watches two over-dressed strangers in black (Al and Max) enter the diner. After complaining […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Killers