1、Theme,英语二班 朱玉兰,of,about Nicks discovery of evil,The killers,Because of the darkness and ignorance of the world, Nick Adams, an innocent boy, in his coming age as a man, experiences evil in the world and is a different person at the close than he was at the start. He wanted to escape from the evils,
2、but the society at that time were the same, and he cannot change it. Finally, he would become more and more realistic.,theme,This short story described the society of 1920s. After World War 1, everything in the society has been out of order, it was filled with violence, death and evil. This situatio
3、n has influenced a lot of people. Peoples illusions are vulnerable and can be easily destroyed by the society in a mass.,theme,How does this happens to Nick?(analyze from Nick and other characters),A、 Nick vs. gangster,“What are you going to kill Ole Andreson for? What did he ever do to you?” From t
4、he passage we can know Nick has so many questions when faces gangsters. Obviously, he is naive and simple, even he doesnt feel gangsters are dangerous. He doesnt know that people can be hired to kill others.,theme,“Whats the idea?” Nick asked this question for three times, indicates that Nick havent
5、 met things like this, he doesnt know whats happening.Nick stood up. He had never had a towel in his mouth before. It shows being gagged was fresh to Nick, he never experiences such a kind of thing. From here, he firstly knows the existence of violence.,theme,B、Nick vs. George,From the passage we ca
6、n know Nick must be younger than George. George can keep calm, even can talk with gangsters naturally. After the killers leaving, he asks Nick to alarm Ole Andreson, but he doesnt force Nick. It seems George has many experiences about life, he is more mature than Nick, and has totally accepted the s
7、ituation of the whole society. Maybe we can say, in his opinion, no matter what happens, there is nothing can shock him.,theme,C、Nick vs. Sam,“I dont like it,” said the cook. “I dont like any of it at all.” “You better not have anything with it at all.” Sam, the cook, said. “You better stay away out
8、 of it.” “I dont even listen to it,” he said and shut the door. That is Sams reaction towards this matter. From Sams action, Nick is aware of peoples indifference to the things which have no affect on themselves.,theme,D、Nick vs. Ole Andreson,“I dont want to know what they were like,” Ole Andreson s
9、aid. He looked at the wall. Nick feels unexpected about Andreson reaction. He thinks Andreson should have ran away at once. So from Andreson, Nick knows peoples attitude to death. While Oles action, which he do nothing to resist have an deep effect on Nick.,theme,E、Nick vs. Mrs. Bell,“Im sorry he do
10、nt feel well,” the woman said. “Hes an awfully nice person. He was in the ring, you know.” Mrs. Bell thinks Ole is a nice man. She cant understand why such a person will be killed. From the conversation with Mrs. Bell, Nick finds a new society which people confound right and wrong.,theme,Hemingway p
11、ushes the plot ahead with large quantity of conversations just as I listed below: most of my analysis are based on dialogues.In this story, only 95 declarative sentences are used, and other sentences (almost 300) appeared in dialogues. Without description of background, characters personality, as we
12、ll as whats in their minds, the author leaves more room of imagination for us in the dialogues and simple sentences.,theme,At last, the author express the novels theme with the dialogues followed:“Im going out of this town.” Nick said. “Yes,” said George. “Thats a good thing to do.” “I cant stand to
13、 think about him waiting in the room and knowing hes going to get it. Its too damned awful.” “Well,” said George, “you better not think about it.”,theme,In the end, Nick totally discovered the evil of the whole society and decided to leave the town. But why didnt he do something to help Ole Andreson
14、? Where was his kindness？His kindness has been “killed” and he became indifferent to others in order to ensure his own security. We dont know whether they eventually managed to kill Ole Andreson or not, but surely they killed something abstract- Nicks kindness, his dream about society and the world.
15、,theme,In the short story, the author criticized the chaotic society, and some indifferent people. Through the “grow” (the destruction of his illusion to society and the world) of Nick, he shows us the confusion of people in such a society, and revealed the change of some people: from kind and innocent to realistic indifferent.,theme,
