Big Two Hearted River Quotes

“Too many people have sacrificed in order for you to be there” (Moore95) Moore did not grasp regarding those phase that his mother and his grandparents sacrifice for him to go to military school. Due to his mom’s fast thinking and dedication to his success, Wes was saved from becoming involved with drugs on the streets of his neighborhood. Other Wes Moore had no significant positive role models in his life. His one brother that he looked up to for guidance, was a drug dealing hood rat himself that had no time for his little brother Wes. His mother was the only positive role model he had left to look up to, and she was too busy working to keep the family afloat financially.

Moore was a troubled kid, getting into fights, getting in trouble for graffiti, running away was sent to many different schools. He was the poor kid in a sea of rich kids (so he didn’t fit in). But he was given the opportunity to change when he was forced to go to a Military boarding school. He eventually decided that he wanted to be apart of something bigger than himself and this was it. He knew he wanted to change. When deciding how he could change he thought, “Aside from my family and friends, the men I trusted most all had something in common: they all wore the uniform of the United States of America,” (Moore pg. 132). He decided he wanted to become a Lieutenant and be someone other people could look up to. This was a major moment in Moore’s life. But Wes, on the other hand, experienced the same bad childhood and never got out of the “bad”. He never had a defining failure where he said ‘this is when I change’. He got onto a path and started making patterns with his decisions and never made the right one to get him to where he needed to be, unlike the other Wes.

Wes Moore, the author of the autobiography, begins his story about his parents, and eventually the loss of his father. Which leads to his mother moving him the family to New York to help raise the children while she tries to pull her own life together. After this event, you can see the slow change in Wes Moore as he begins to skip school and commit petty crime, like tagging the neighborhood where he lived. His mother eventually fed up with this ships him to Military school in hopes it will shape him up. After a rough begging, a distinct change is seen in the author.

In the short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’brien,Suggest that an individual's fears are powerful motivators along with the ability to anticipate ones action will have on themselves and their environment will often force them to make significant life changing decisions.

“He’d do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter” (265). In the book the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, the Panama Hotel is on the corner of Chinatown and Japantown. The hotel is located between the two cultures Henry is tied to, the Japanese and the Chinese. The story takes place in Henry’s past when he first meets Keiko and the present, after his wife, Ethel, has died. The hotel acts as the connection in between the two cultures and the two time periods, and symbolizes how Henry does too.

After three years of military school, it transformed Wes to become an exceptional man. On page 96, the text states, "I had never seen a man, a peer, demand that much respect from his people. I had seen Shea demand respect in the neighborhood, but this was different. This was real respect, the kind you can't beat or scare out of people." One of the first positive role models Wes encounters at military school is Captain Ty Hill.. Wes grew up in rough neighborhoods with children who were respected by being gang leaders and drug dealers. At military school, he is able to view a new kind of role model: someone who commands respect because they deserve respect, Whereas at his old neighborhood, everyone is scared of what young men will do if they aren't respected .Military school had a great impact on him because they were concerned if he succeeded and eventually he did. He was offered many academic and sport scholarships. Eventually, Moore graduated from John Hopkins University. Wes Moore was guided by many positive role models that led him to the right path, but the other Wes Moore was surrounded by much more negative

Throughout The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, I sympathized with Keiko and Henry the most. Although both are minority races, they are discriminated against differently. Keiko identifies as 'American', but that does not seem to matter as her family and the rest of the citizens of Japanese descent are whisked into armed, prison-like camps by U.S. officials. I can relate to her since I have been discriminated against because of my ethnicity. It seems easy for some to make stereotypes about other races, especially in a time where everyone is looking for somewhere to place the blame. For example, the discrimination is evident when Keiko and Henry try to buy a record- Keiko is not even acknowledged because she is Japanese.

In the book The Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao, income and social status prevent Mai and her family from all being together in the United States. On page 227, her mother Thahn writes in a letter to Mai, “How could i have told you that Baba Quan, the man I call Father, is a Vietcong from whom i am still trying to escape?” This quote shows that because Mai’s grandfather Baba Quan was a Vietcong, he wasn't able to come over to the United States during the war to be with his family because little did Mai know at the time, her grandfather was apart of this war that caused them to flee. During the early stages of Thahns life and the income that lacked thereof in her family, Baba Quan had to go to drastic measures in order to pay rent. “...my father, your

Throughout the story, Nick’s rants are a loss of control that “he [can feel] coming on” (410) however the rants bring him a certain clarity. Without those opportunities, Nick is just a shell-shocked man with shrapnel fragments in his skull (407). That shell-shock is most prominently shown when Nick is leaving the dugout because his memories of his time there are swamping his mind and weakening his control on the outbursts. Nick is retrieving his bicycle, which is a symbol for youth and the way that he was as well as another symbol for his loss of identity. While he is getting his bicycle, he has another flashback. That flashback however is disjointed, making it seem as though he is between realities. Again, this links back to Nick’s struggle for control over his mind and identity even though in this case he’s not succeeding. Therefore one might be left with this message: One must either govern or be governed, both mentally and physically, in the fight for

After the doctor meets with Nick and Nick cannot bend his knee, the doctor tells Nick to be positive and hopeful that his life will be normal again: "That will all pass. You are a fortunate young man. You will play football again like a champion" (Hemingway 169). Nick understands why the doctor calls him "fortunate" to only walk out of the war with a hurt knee because soldiers in rooms next to him received more traumatizing injuries. Later he meets about his future with a major. Nick talks about his plan to marry, and the major tells him that marriage hurts a man: "If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that. He should not place himself in a position to lose. He should find things he cannot lose" (Hemingway 173). Nick hopes that his return will be simple, but he still has much to experience and adventure. The war changes Nick from an innocent, young man with many hopes and aspirations to a scarred man with an arduous return to his regular life

He then decides to join the school of military and then be enlisted in the armed forces. At the beginning, it seemed as if he was not cut out for the armed forces, but he found acceptance was with time. After being involved in war, he toughened up (CW, 2010). After he served his time in the war, Wes left the military as a veteran and got into business while pursuing all the opportunities that he could get.

Nick is still, however, an honest and good man. He is not extravagantly rich, but unlike Gatsby he earned all of his high social connections fairly. He is rather disgusted with the East and it’s empty values by the end of the book. But he is still intrigued by it all, as he demonstrates through his relationship with Jordan Baker. He holds an almost subconscious

Nick is a World War I veteran who, as many veterans, suffers from emotional trauma that his experiences from the war left him with. Multiple scenes throughout the story, Big Two Hearted River, relates to Nick, the main character’s, journey toward recovery. Nick describes his surroundings in way that parallels to his own experiences and current voyage in respect to his revival.. He takes a calming adventure saturated with calming natural paths over hills, through woodland, and along a river to find peace with himself and to return to his prewar state of mind.

In Big Two Hearted River, Ernest Hemingway used his own experiences he had during the war and the issues he had when injured in the war. As soon as Nick stepped off the train the reader could feel the disappointment that Nick had and the understanding that he was a troubled soul. At the same time this was Nick’s way to treat himself by staying close to nature and the simpler things in life. No matter how happy Nick would get he would continue to have flashbacks of things he has done and friends he has lost along the way. Throughout the short story by Hemingway, Nick will continue to move through his problems from the war by camping and catch his food from the river and the reader will be able to see Nicks pain and happiness.

     In Hemingway’s collection of short stories, In Our Time, we follow a character by the name of Nick Adams. We are introduced to Nick in “Indian Camp” as a young boy, and follow him to adulthood in both Parts I and II of “Big Two-Hearted River”. Through this we see Nick develop and learn about some major facts of life. Nick is a character who changes through the effects of war on many different levels. Although Hemingway hardly mentions the war, he uses the stories to express different effects and emotions caused by the war.