Sillitoe and Hemingway: Two fishing scenes

Alan Sillitoe ends his ground-breaking Saturday Night and Sunday Morning with two quite different and distinct chapters, one an interior monologue, almost a screed, in which the protag., Arthur, lashes out at all of English society, including right and left, factory workers and plutocrat owners, the military system, labor leaders, women - everything - almost an founding document for the English "angry young men" of the 1960s. But the final chapter: Arthur heads off alone to go fishing upstream from the factories of Nottingham, reflects a bit on his life - at this point it seems he is settling in with the nice young woman, Doreen, who probably deserves better than Arthur, esp as he still seems to have a longing for the drama and danger of carrying on with married women, and he and Doreen engage in an inauspicious spat about his drinking - all this bound to get worse with time - but the final chapter is a pastoral moment in this largely urban novel, and it's impossible not to compare this with Hemingway, esp Big Two-Hearted River: Arthur finds some peace and solace, lands a big fish, in an interesting passage he ties to see the world as the fish does "out of water" - kind of a metaphor for the way he feels about his life - and releases the fish, as a tribute, but swears the next one he'll keep. There are huge contextual differences between this chapter - which, again, could stand alone as a story - and H., in that H's protag was a returning soldier who is facing the challenge of adjusting back to civilian without the clear delineations of heroism and cowardice, and the story is almost entire told in the details of his actions, making camp etc.; Sillitoe's Arthur has nothing but contempt for the army and war and his retreat - much more introspective than Hemingway's, and much more in the shadow of urban life - is more of a refuge, even an escape - an ominous scene that portends no good.