Ernest Hemingways In Another Country - Book Report/Review Example

An essay on Ernest Hemingway's personal experiences of writing "In Another Country" ________ "A job is to tell the truth", said Hemingway in 1942 (Young 9). No other writer of our time has so fiercely asserted this truism considering that the primary intent of Hemingway's writings, was to narrate stories based on prima facie evidence. It's no surprise that many of his story protagonists had a close resemblance to actual characters he met during those real-life experiences in which he gathered content for his plot development. In the case of Nick Adams, the main character of Hemingway's short story, In Another Country, this real-life resemblance grew incidentally, out of his own identity. Considering that most of Hemingway's lead characters happen to be single males (and not females) driven by a zest for masochism (Waldhorn 52) in that they are compelled to act graciously under duress and pain, Nick Adams does not disappoint with his poignant transition from child to adolescent to soldier, veteran, writer and parent; mirroring various shades of Hemingway's life in a way none of his other writings could. Released in abridged format as part of the writer's 20's-30's series of short stories In Our Time, Nick is today remembered by Hemingway fans as his unblemished alter ego who managed to learn the ropes in different aspects of life. It's significant to note that Nick's continual of Hemingway's passion for self-learning offers a great respite of hope for readers who identify with the writer's enigmatic reverence for optimism and cheer. Written in 1926, In Another Country is a gripping tale of aspirations, individual merit and other "heroic" (Meyers 90) attributes that define Hemingway's portrayal of his lead characters. In this essay, an attempt has been made to understand the critical points at which Nick's character overlaps with Hemingway's own nostalgic moments; in doing so, the focus is on capturing multiple dimensions of the character for comparisons with the writer's own trysts with different shades of life. Hemingway's first inspiration to write In the Country came from a TS Eliot quote in his poem The Portrait of a Lady derived from Christopher Marlowe's (Elizabethan) The Jew of Malta, which offers scope to understand his state of mind when designing this plot. "Thou hast committed fornication, but that was in another country" (Tyler 74) Fornication referred to sex outside of marriage. Since the story of In Another Country was played out in a war theater, outside the protagonist's country (Milan, Italy), it bears a close resemblance to Hemingway's own sequence of events in life during that tumultuous period (Tyler 74). His first wife, Hadley had left him by then which led him to have promiscuous affairs (a less mentioned, but well-known attribute of the famous writer). The story's heroine, Catherine who had an adulterous affair with Nick Adams, died in the end leaving Nick, surly and contemptuous. Indeed, the transition from a bold adventurer to an insignificant recluse, is the striking theme of In the Country (Benson 88). Even the most nave reader could bridge the connections between the parallel events that shaped Hemingway's basic ideas in inventing the theme. Another coincidence is Nick's presence in a war zone outside Milan, Italy which was based on Hemingway's own experiences as a Red Cross volunteer in Italy during World War I. Even the opening hospital scene with tragic visuals of the wounded and the dying, can said to have Hemingway's accounts of a similar makeshift hospital in Italy (Tate 122). To understand the precise impact of those images on the writer's mind, it would be significant to note that his protagonist had a leg injury, as he did (Tate 124). This scene was also contained in Hemingway's all-time classic, A Farewell to Arms. Also, there is substantial mention of prostitution of Italian women around those military bases (Tate 127)- thus, it can be said that a number of facts closely intertwined in the sifting of ideas for the writer. In the Country, as an art of retrospective fiction, was written a long time after the war ended. To throw light on the story's plot and character development, it is essential to grasp the pivotal balances on which the different themes unfold. For example, since a greater portion of the story is set in a military hospital wing, the focus invariably shifts between the interactions of the doctor and the patient, Nick Adams. The doctor may be considered the alter ego of Hemingway's personal associations with different characters whom he met in his own hospital encounters in Italy. Since the overriding principle of war-time hospitals was to observe discipline and rules, it often led to conflicts between doctors and patients (Tate 124). This facet of conflict was presented through the seemingly innocuous interactions between Nick and another character, the major whose verbal conflicts with Nick had all the trappings of a "learning process" which also grew out into Hemingway's own learning sequence during that phase of life (Waldhorn 57). In this case, the character of Nick was developed through the purview of a "narrator" (Tate 122). For example, the narrator who had initially thought that Italian was a simple language to learn, was admonished by the Italian Major for his presumptuous knowledge of simple facts, to which he quickly reconciles with his erroneous understanding. Also, when the narrator expressed his desire to marry a woman (Catherine) in those desperate circumstances, the stern Major reminded him of his duty following which the words have a precise impact, "If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that []. He should find things he cannot lose (Tyler 75). Indeed, Hemingway's optimistic and cheerful style of shaping his character's contents, is given a proper outlet through the individual experiences of Nick Adams, the narrator. In the ongoing sequence of character sketching, it's significant to note that he also shared Hemingway's style of patriotic sentiments during his wartime experiences - in particular the fact that the narrator received a war medal without actually having contributed to the front (Tyler 75). Incidentally, Hemingway was the recipient of the Silver medal of Military Valor (medaglia d'argento) from the Italian government for a similar role during World War I (he had rescued a soldier despite being wounded on the leg. It cannot be denied that Hemingway found an outlet in the narrator, as far as his feelings for missing out on the military prestige was concerned. The narrator calls the other soldiers, the "hunting hawks" (Tyler 75) and recognizes that he's different from them, a feeling of despondence which must have been experienced by Hemingway himself. Nick's loneliness and fears as confirmed by the prim and inelegant Italian Major, is projected due to the latter's stoic and dispassionate actions. The Major is shown to be unconcerned about his own death, and has seldom any hopes for recovery. He does not have any fondness for bravery and therapeutic machines: instead there is a focus on good discipline and good grammar (Italian). The alter ego of Hemingway, projected on the narrator, finds subtle accommodation in the Major when his wife dies due to pneumonia. Since he's now lost all hope for his life, this made an indelible impression on his forward sequence of events. According to Hemingway, the Major was now spiritually transferred to another country (Waldhorn 69). That another country, is nothing less than human condition itself, for human condition is always vulnerable to sickness, and failure, and loss of vitality (hope). In the pure sense of the word, a key part of the story touches the reader when the Major confesses that after the death of his wife, he had "wept bitterly" (Tate 128) and was unable to lose his composure. After a few moments of passive surrender, the Major resumed his machine therapy and quipped at the narrator, "I'm unable to resign myself" (Waldhorn 69). As it was stated earlier, Hemingway's male protagonists have a remarkable tendency to be battle-hardened stoics, capable of taking any amount of stress in their stride with a smile, the characters of In Another country are given more opportunities to express themselves in this dispassionate mode. The narrator, who is really the protagonist Nick Adams, is at a transition phase of his maturity in life. Since the story is a continuation of other parts in the Nick Adams series, Hemingway took care to demonstrate an equal amount of stoicism in the character as it unfolds. Since this feature is true for most of Hemingway's narrations, the context of war brings out the most significant observations in this regard. Hemingway never gave Nick enough chance to apply whatever he learned from the Major, in subsequent plots which really attaches importance to the theme: "did Hemingway tried to dissociate himself from events in World War I" (Waldhorn 70). Only a critical study of Hemingway's personal notes can give such an interesting conclusion. Indeed, the most significant themes of Hemingway's personal recollections from the war episode, "death and heroism" find a welcome note through this novel In Another Country. As a summary note, it is important to remark that Hemingway's tryst with past experiences often flavored his pragmatic vision as far as new stories suggest. In Another Country is a bold testimony to that effect. References Benson, Jackson J. "New Critical Approaches to Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway". Duke University Press. 2001 Meyers, Jeffery. "Ernest Hemingway". Routledge. 1997. Tate, Trudy. "Women, Men and the Great War: An Anthology of Short Stories". Manchester University Press. 1995. Tyler, Lisa. "Student Companion to Ernest Hemingway". Greenwood Press. 2001 Waldhorn, Arthur. "A Reader's Guide to Ernest Hemingway". Syracuse University Press. 2002 Young, Philip. "Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsideration". Penn State Press. 1996. Read More