Posted by Pjk on June 07, 19101 at 12:23:10:
In Reply to: Re: HELP!!! EXAM!!!! PJK!!!!! SOMEONE!!!! Nick Adams: Indian Camp, The Doctor's and the Doctor's wife, A Way You'll Never Be posted by Rebekka on June 06, 19101 at 13:28:25:
: Thank you SO much Pjk!! I can't thank you enough ( if I get an A on my exam it'll be because of you :-) ) I know it's asking for more, but do you have any aspects of 'A Way You'll Never Be?' We're having trouble understanding that. Like about the title, the dream he has and the talk about locust....
: Once again, thanks.
: Rebekka
I hope this is in time. I had to go back and re-read
the story, then find some ysis. Just quickly, the
plot is that Nick Adams has suffered a head wound while
in Italy during the Great War. He has had some amount
of therapy and is now revisiting the front, not as a
soldier or delivering candy and supplies to the Italian
soldiers at the fron, but simply wearing a made-up
American uniform to bolster the spirits of the Italian
troops by making them think he is the van of a large number
of Americans that will come to help them win the war.
He suffers two incidents where he becomes somewhat incoherent;
the two episodes you refer to. Aparently, his jouney back to the
front and through the scense of dead soldiers and their scattered
equipment is parallel to his periods of incoherence. And notice that
when he finally finds the company he is looking for, all but one is
lieing down asleep, kind of showing that there is no difference between
the dead and the insanity of war and the living soldiers. His one period
of incoherence in which he describes how easy it is to catch grhoppers
probably refers to the ease one side or the other can kill many soldiers.
And i the second period of incoherence, the several references to a yellow
house, a stable, and a c or river whose width keeps changing, is probably
a reference to the place where he was wounded, a place that keeps popping in
and out of his mind, and that happened at least several seasons ago, hence
the different widths of the river.
And there is a curious reference to Gaby Delys (with feathers on).
This is a real person, an actress whose stage name was Gaby Deslys
(Gabrielle of the Lilies) and who developed throat cancer. Rather than
have her throut scarred by an operation, she did nothing and died in
1920 at 24. This adds versimilitude to the story (like mentioning
Marlene Deitrich singing Lillie Marlaine) but it may also emphasize the
fact that Nick has had no real fix for his head wound (it was not trepanned,
either he or the major says), and thus Nick must suffer through his headaches
and periods of incoherence.
The title is apparently directed at the reader. It is the story of
someone who has been affected mentally by the war...a way you, the reader,
will never be, and thus will never be able to understand.
hth
Pjk
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