Hemingways A Very Short Story - Book Report/Review Example

express their feelings and thoughts in literary form. Hemingway’s “A Very Short Story” is written out of his experiences in World War I. Thisshort story is typical of Hemingway’s style of war time economics and the understatement of the story. Themes of the pointlessness of love in war, of love at all, and the aimlessness of the Lost Generation are present in this story. Hemingway conveyed so much meaning into a short story. “A Short Story” is about an American soldier and a nurse in Italy during World War 1. After the American soldier is wounded, he is tended to by the nurse. They fall in love and plan to marry after the war. After the war, the soldier wants his nurse to go home with him. They argue, but decide he will go home to New York in order to prepare for her arrival. The woman falls in love with another man and ends the affair with the American through a Dear John letter. The woman never marries and never hears from her first boyfriend. The American soldier ends up catching gonorrhea from a sales clerk. Hemingway felt the need to write “A Very Short Story” after a similar experience during World War I. While wounded, Hemingway fell in love with Agnes von Kurowsky (Howard). The parallels between reality and “A Very Short Story” are striking. There was a quarrel on the train (Howard). The ending is like Hemingway and Kurowsky’s love story. Howard explains: Like Agnes, Luz from the story stays in Italy while her wounded soldier returns to the States just like Hemingway. Like Agnes, Luz falls in love with another man and finds herself suddenly engaged. Agnes writes of it to Hemingway: ‘Then - & believe me when I say this is sudden for me, too - I expect to be married soon.’ This ending mirrors “A Very Short Story.” Hemingway’s two greatest tragedies was “his wounding at Fossalta and Agnes von Kurowsky’s rejection” (Kert 218). These two events impacted his writing, not only the content and theme, but his whole writing style. War time economics are the assets of World War I. It does not mean money as much as the whole atmosphere during the war in relations to material things. For example, in the story Hemingway wrote: Luz wrote him many letters that he never got until after the armistice. Fifteen came in a bunch to the front and he sorted them by the dates and read them all straight through. (Hemingway 107) The letters were probably more precious than rubies to the soldier. The economics of the war was different. Basic things became priceless due to the unavailability of everyday necessities like letters, birth certificates, and other things. Without war time economics, the American soldier would have had access to his birth certificate. The two lovers could have been married immediately. However this story’s setting was during a time when war economics ruled. This story is very simple and basic. The main character is never given a name. Only the pronoun ‘he’ is used. None of the male characters have names. The lead female is named Luz, only a first name. The female at the end is only identified as a salesclerk. These names might be given due to Hemingway’s own experiences. Hemingway once stated: When I started I wrote some short stories about actual things and two of them hurt people. Later if I used actual people I used only those for whom I completely lost respect and then I tried to give them a fair shake. (Phillips 67) By giving the lead female a name she is elevated above the other characters. This could be because Hemingway’s split with Agnes was so traumatic. He lifted her up as an ideal love. Thus the female’s name could be an element of this idealization. “A Very Short Story” is about love in war. Generally love in war is not lasting. Luz’s affairs with the American soldier and Italian Major prove that. War situation can make individuals fall in love. The nurse/patient relationship made the two lovers meet due to the war. This relationship bonded them before the man was sent back to the front. The love between the two was the response to make a normal life out of the war (Bensen 26). However the war tore the two lovers apart as well when the man was sent back to the front. After World War I, the American soldier and Luz’s life did not last. Hemingway believed that love was pointless, if his stories reflect his personal beliefs. Despite the man’s efforts to go back into civilian’s life, Luz spurned him. “The soldier had been ready to change his life radically upon returning to America. He was going to give up both alcohol and his friends; all he wanted was to get a job and get married” (Benson 26). Luz still did not want anything to do with him. This story shows that love is futile in war and peace. Hemingway might not have understood the whole situation. The American soldier came home to civilian life. Since no fighting had been done on American soil, America had a sense of normalcy that was lacking in Europe. While the war was over, the effort to rebuild had been undertaken. The soldiers and peacekeeping units were still active in order to keep peace. The excitement of the war was still present in Europe. Maybe Luz, and in effect Agnes, wanted to experience that excitement. The setting of the two lovers pushed them apart. The Lost Generation is a term used by one of Hemingway’s characters. The Lost Generation “defined by Gertrude Stein as ‘all of you young people who served in the war’” (Benson 62). After World War I many young soldiers came back disillusioned. Europeans that survived the war were also disenchanted. These people were the Lost Generation. Americans are known for their patriotism. However World War I was seen as fighting another’s battle by isolationists. Thus soldiers that seen all the blood and fighting knew that war was not romantic. These men, like Hemingway, felt that no matter what they did with their lives, life will never be the same. The Lost Generation was stripped of all the romantic ideals of childhood, their innocence, and even their health. The Lost Generation was filled with fatalistic individuals. “A Very Short Story” describes members of the Lost Generation. Both main characters do not have a happily ever after. The major did not marry her in the spring, or any other time. Luz never got an answer to the letter to Chicago about it. A short time after he contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park. (Hemingway 108) Luz loses both of the men. The American soldier contracts gonorrhea trying to get over Luz. These two characters prove that everything is fatalistic during that time. Hemingway wrote about life experiences. He believed that love was futile in war and peace. The name he gave for his generation was the Lost Generation, because the individuals lost so much. Hemingway related his own pain into “A Very Short Story.” Works Cited Benson, Jackson J. New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Duke University Press, 1991. Print. Hemingway, Ernest. “A Very Short Story.” The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition. New York: Scribner, 1998. Print. Howard, Melissa. “A Very Short Story and a Letter.” 19 Mar. 2009. Suite 101. Online. Kert, Bernice. The Hemingway Women. New York: Scribner, 1998. Print. Phillips, Larry W. ed. Ernest Hemingway on Writing. New York: Scribner, 1999. Print. Read More