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A River Runs Through It

Idrees 1
Kasim Idrees
14 November 2008
English 1A

A Hobby or a Way of Life

Religion and tradition are two ways that families come together. However in Norman Maclean’s novella, A River Runs Through It, the Maclean family’s devotion to their Presbyterian religion and their tradition of fly-fishing is what undeniably brought the family together. Under the father’s strict Presbyterian values, his sons, Norman and Paul used fly-fishing as the link that brought them closer together and helped them bond with their father on a different level. The family’s hobby of fly-fishing was started just for fun. It was a sport that was taken up every Sunday after church to take their minds off of the worries in life. After a while, going fly-fishing every Sunday turned into a tradition and soon a learning experience for the father and his two sons. The sport brought the men of the family together and it was an activity that gave them structure in their lives. It was used as a guideline as to how to handle different situations and how to let go of the worries of life for a day and just relax. It is clear to say that fishing has a big meaning to the member of the Maclean family, but fishing held a meaning to each person in that family.
Norman and Paul’s father was a minister who raised his sons under strong
Presbyterian values and believed that art was one-way man could clearly understand God and His creation. He advocated creativity because he thought that art was the guide man
Idrees 2
used to communicate with God and to become a part of His wide universe. In short, it was not capability but mastery of art that helped man establish a direct link with the world around him and art was the person’s way of showing appreciation for God’s universe. This is why Reverend Maclean tells Norman to create stories because he knows that this is one art form that will bring his son closer to God and nature. The only thing that even came close to the...