When Nick realizes that Seney is not going to offer him what he’s looking for (as the town has burned down and been abandoned), he hikes into the woods to camp. The narrator captures Nick’s experience of the start of his journey using imagery:
He walked along the road feeling the ache from the pull of the heavy pack. The road climbed steadily. It was hard work walking up-hill. His muscles ached and the day was hot, but Nick felt happy. He felt he had left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs. It was all back of him.
The imagery in this passage helps readers to experience the hike alongside Nick—they can feel “the ache from the pull of the heavy pack,” the challenge of hiking up the incline of the hill, and the heat of the day. While readers might assume, after such descriptions, that Nick would feel frustrated or beleaguered, Hemingway reveals that the opposite is true: “Nick felt happy.” In this way, the purpose of the imagery becomes clear—to show readers that, to Nick, physical suffering is nothing compared to emotional suffering. In fact, the physical pain seems to offer him a respite from his own brain, and the traumatic memories of war that he stores therein.
When describing the start of Nick’s hike away from the burned-down town of Seney, the narrator uses imagery, as seen in the following passage:
He stood with the pack on his back on the brow of the hill looking out across the country toward the distant river and then struck down the hillside away from the road. Underfoot the ground was good walking. Two hundred yards down the hillside the fire line stopped. Then it was sweet fern, growing ankle high, to walk through, and clumps of jack pines; a long undulating country with frequent rises and descents, sandy underfoot and the country alive again.
There are a few different examples of imagery in this passage. Hemingway includes descriptions of the ground being “good walking” and “sandy” so that readers can feel what Nick’s hike is like for him. Likewise, he includes rich descriptions of the landscape that help readers to visualize the scenery, such as how the sweet fern was “growing ankle high” amongst the jack pines, and how the country was “long,” “undulating,” and “alive.”
Hemingway intentionally pulls readers more deeply into the story via imagery so that they understand how free and unburdened Nick feels when he moves beyond the fire line. Though Hemingway doesn’t state it directly, it is implied that Nick’s negative reaction to the evidence of fire is because it reminds him of his time serving in World War I (and presumably witnessing the effects of bombings). Beyond the fire line, nature is back to being nature for Nick—soothing, predictable, and alive. While Seney may have changed, nature hasn’t, and that is calming to Nick.
When Nick is fishing for trout on the river, he catches one and ultimately loses it. The narrator uses imagery to capture Nick’s experience in this moment, as seen in the following passage:
His mouth dry, his heart down, Nick reeled in. He had never seen so big a trout. There was a heaviness, a power not to be held, and then the bulk of him, as he jumped. He looked as broad as a salmon. Nick’s hand was shaky. He reeled in slowly. The thrill had been too much. He felt, vaguely, a little sick, as though it would be better to sit down.
The imagery in this passage engages several senses at once. While Nick is catching the trout, readers can feel alongside him his dry mouth and his “down” (or anxious) heart, while also feeling the “heaviness” and “bulk” of the enormous fish. After the fish jumps (escaping Nick’s capture), readers can also experience bodily Nick’s sense of overwhelm and feeling of being “a little sick.”
In addition to bringing readers closer into the scene, the imagery here communicates how psychologically vulnerable Nick is. Based on his body’s reactions, he is extremely anxious during the process of catching the fish and becomes even more unstable after he loses the fish, such that he feels sick and can't remain standing. All of this suggests that Nick is easily emotionally triggered after his time serving in World War I. While some forms of nature keep him calm and emotionally regulated (such as the serene river), others make him deeply anxious, such as this large trout that is not predictable or inside of his control.
