The voice of his generation, Ernest Hemingway, captured the many complex emotions of Americans during World War I and brought clarity to his peers throughout its famous In Our Temps collection. Through stories and vignettes, Hemingway sheds light on World War I by depicting real-life and deeply moving snapshots from before, during, and after the war. Hemingway explores the devastating effects of war on society by telling the stories of Nick Adams and others. By using a number of diverse characters in similar life situations, Hemingway emphasizes the generality of human experience and highlights the issues of his generation. In the final stories of In Our Time, Hemingway connects the themes of survival in the world and the universality of human experience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Our Time is essentially the story of Nick Adams' life as a boy becoming a man. Many critics have questioned whether the work is a "bildungsroman" book or not, but the development of Nick's character throughout the stories ensures that it is indeed so. The compilation of stories and vignettes must fall into the category of bildungsroman literature, given the way they show Nick's – and perhaps every boy's – gradual right of passage. The reader watches the naive boy who “felt quite sure he would never die” in Indian Camp gradually become the man we later see returning from war. Along the way, Nick Adams matures through successive stories: he regrets his decision to break up with Marjorie in "The Three Day Blow", prepares to be tough in "The Battler", degrades the war into a wounded soldier in chapter VI. , and eventually tries to recover from and reflect on all of his encounters in "Big Two-Hearted River". The story of Nick Adams (and that of the other soldiers who play the protagonist role) is told by Hemingway as Nick grows into a man. In "My Old Man", Hemingway revisits the theme of the father-son bond and the maturation of a young boy that was established earlier in "Indian Camp" and "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife". At this point in the stories, however, the reader knows that Nick is preparing to return from Europe. Because our protagonist is older and now returning from the war, this story at first seems to interrupt the flow of the book. Its placement just before “Big Two-Hearted River” is interesting for this reason. Hearing the story of young Joe and his father, the reader may instinctively assume that this is a parallel to Nick's youth, as they must both have had the experience of losing their father. Whether or not Nick is the true protagonist of "My Old Man," we as readers realize that Nick shared the same experience as this substitute protagonist. The reader understands at this point, thanks to Hemingway's conditioning, that the identity of the character himself is fundamentally unimportant. Joe simply replaces Nick, as many other characters in the story are, to reinforce the theme of the universality of human experience. As in many other stories, the experiences of these characters are seemingly interchangeable. In “My Old Man,” the reader sees poor little Joe lose his beloved father in a brutal racing accident, stripping him of everything he has in the world. When innocent Joe hears men calling his father a crook, he is deeply hurt. This changed Joe’s notes: “I don’t know. Seems like when they start, they don'tleave nothing to a man” (p. 129). In the accident he lost his father, but when the men spoke, he lost even more: he lost the memory of his father, he lost his role model and his hope. By the end of “My Old Man,” Hemingway has created the lasting feeling of being alone in the world and without hope, as we are drawn back into the life of Nick Adams in “Big Two-Hearted River.” the next (and last) story of In Our Time, we find Nick alone in nature. “Big Two-Hearted River” presents the reader with a new set of problems for Nick, who has of course returned from the war, but not unscathed. Although one might have expected Nick to return to his family as a glorious veteran would, that is far from reality. Interestingly enough, Nick Adams is isolated from society throughout the final story, fishing, camping, and observing the nature around him. Perhaps he is alone to be able to regain everything he lost during the war, and especially his mental health. In part one, it is evident that the war has left Nick empty, disillusioned, and unable to function in normal society. Hemingway reinforces this feeling of isolation by describing Nick as alone in the woods, away from society but at the same time free. In an attempt to recover from the war, Nick spends his time alone in the woods of northern Michigan, where he can become one with nature and free his mind from the complexities of American society. Nick is similar to Krebs from "Soldier's Home" in this sense: both experience the same disillusionment upon returning from war and neither can muster the energy to deal with the "consequences" of the world around them. At this point, Nick “clearly didn’t want any consequences.” He never wanted any consequences again. He wanted to live without consequences,” which is why he returns to the woods where he can be alone and free (p. 71). Hemingway's stark prose is famous for its simplicity and lack of emotion, but "Big Two-Hearted River" is noticeably drier than the rest of In Our Time. Especially in the first part, Hemingway does the unimaginable: he simplifies his writing even more than what the reader has become accustomed to while reading this collection of stories. The purpose of this oversimplification is most likely to emphasize the state of mind Nick is in. Nick simplifies every move he makes, because he has returned to his childhood. Nick even abandoned all his needs except the purely physiological ones: "Nick felt happy. He felt he had left everything behind him, the need to think, the need to write, the other needs. Everything was behind him” (p. 134). The only things Nick does in the first part of "Big Two-Hearted River" are meet the basic needs of food and shelter. He's clearly left behind the need to think, as he forgets simple things like water for his coffee. Much of Nick's environment in "Big Two-Hearted River" represents his inner psychological state. The reader gets the chance to see the world through Nick's eyes as he methodically sets up camp along the river. Throughout the story, the reader becomes Nick's psychologist, and can easily analyze his detailed description of the surrounding nature, which he constantly observes in the first part. Like the town of Seney he passes through, Nick is exhausted upon his return from the war. Seney and his charred remains represent Nick's emotional scars after World War I. First, Nick is amazed as he watches the fish remain steady in the current and intently observes their behavior. Nick tries to emulate the fish's stability throughout the story, as he meticulously sets up camp, prepares.