One of the things we discussed in my group was that Nick was a soldier, something that I didn’t see when I first read the story. I got the feeling that he had gone fishing because he wanted to get away from something or someone. We came to the conclusion that he wanted to get away from himself and he also wanted to let go of something. He suffered from PTSD he saw war everywhere during his fishing trip.

On the other hand, Wright’s “Almos’ a man” was a lot easier to understand and analyze, something that we came to the conclusion that he left on the train because he already made a foul of himself there, he needed to get away in order to fit in. He needed to leave to prove the town’s people that he really was a man.

All stories are great, all three of them.