WALTON JUNCTION TO MANCELONA

The Place
Running through the heart of Mancelona, Michigan is the mainline of the Grand Rapids & Indiana (GR&I) railroad, which runs from Richmond, Indiana to Mackinaw City. Today, this section of the old GR&I line from Grand Rapids to Mackinaw is called the Michigan Northern Railroad. Near Mancelona, the Michigan Northern runs along US 131 [1]. Hemingway spent little time in Mancelona during his life, and the town appears in only one Hemingway story. However, "The Battler" is one of his most recognized and most debated stories.


The friendly village of Mancelona

The Story

In the story "The Battler", Nick Adams hitches a ride on the GR&I near Walton Junction, heading north, past Kalkaska. Eventually, just south of Mancelona, he is discovered by a brakeman and thrown from the train. Walking along the GR&I, Nick stumbles upon a punchdrunk, crazy, ex-champion boxer, Ad Francis, and his servant, Bugs. When Ad becomes angry with Nick for no apparent reason, Bugs knocks him unconscious, and Nick asks Bugs why Ad went crazy. Bugs ruminates on possible reasons, but eventually says ‘He just went crazy.’ At one point, Ad says about Nick, “he says he’s never been crazy,’ to which Bugs replies, ‘he’s got a lot coming to him.’

"The Battler" has long been regarded as one of Hemingway’s most controversial stories. Many feel that to Nick, Ad is his future self. Nick has a bump on his head and a black eye, to match Ad’s fight torn face. Nick is an emotionally battered individual, wandering without aim, like Ad. The exchange between Ad and Bugs foreshadows problems in Nick’s future. As another instance of parallelism, “Ad” is the first syllable of Adams [2-273].
The GR&I line that Adams was thrown from

The Hemingway Connection

In his later years, Hemingway seemed to endorse this interpretation. He once told A.E. Hotchner he considered Ad and Bug’s exchange “a prophecy fulfilled [2-273].” However, in this conversation, Hemingway was referring to the man Ernest Hemingway, not the character Nick Adams. The parallels between Nick and Hemingway are clear. Nick is seeing his future in Ad: beaten and half-crazy, and Hemingway views his own future the same way. Late in Hemingway’s life, a friend inadvertently uttered that prophetic line “he’s got a lot coming to him.” Hemingway became rattled and extremely angry. “That’s out of ‘The Battler’, you do realize that?” he snapped, realizing his prediction had unfortunately come to fruition [2-582]. The last years of Hemingway’s life are characterized by a slow plunge into insanity, a condition he predicted of himself in The Battler.