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Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Solid Swamp:
As Nick is sitting by the river while camping alone in the woods, he notices a swamp farther down the river. The narrator uses a hyperbole to capture the density of the swamp, as seen in the following passage:
Ahead the river narrowed and went into a swamp. The river became smooth and deep and the swamp looked solid with cedar trees, their trunks close together, their branches solid. It would not be possible to walk through a swamp like that. The branches grew so low. You would have to keep almost level with the ground to move at all […]
He wished he had brought something to read. He felt like reading. He did not feel like going on into the swamp.
The hyperbole here—in which the narrator describes the way the swamp “looked solid with cedar trees”—is clearly an exaggeration (as swamps are, by definition, not solid). This is Hemingway’s way of expressing how daunted Nick feels while looking at the swamp. While he seems to consider exploring it—imagining how he would have to move in order to traverse it—he also suddenly wishes that he “had brought something to read” because “he did not feel like going on into the swamp.”
The density—or “solidity”—of the swamp symbolizes the intensity of the traumatic memories that Nick has stored in his mind. He likes the river because it is predictable and makes him feel in control, while the swamp—like his memories—is outside of his control.
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