IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY
PAGE 579
SETTING:
MILAN: A CITY IN THE NORTHERN PART OF ITALY.
DURING WORLD WAR 1; 1914 – 1918
Examples of loneliness and isolation:
The cold wind; the dark streets, the warm glow of the restaurants filled with laughing Italian couples, which exclude the five soldiers walking in the dark on the sidewalk.
The dead animals, the “game”, the deer, the foxes and the birds hanging in the chill wind. the wind is ruffling the foxes’ fur and powdering it with snow.
The soldiers, all officers, are hated by the Italians and jeered at.
The soldiers are wounded and “no longer go to the war”. They go to a hospital each day where they work on miracle machines which will restore their bodies. But they are not working.
The three men are “hawks”. Hawks are predatory animals, birds of prey, which imply strength, courage, brutality. The narrator and the young man whose face was blown off during his first hour on the battle field are not hawks.
There is a distance within the group between the hawks and the other two.
There is a major with a withered hand who is using the machines, but he does not have much faith. The major was Italian.
The narrator was learning Italian from the major.
Why did the major continue with the treatments if he didn’t believe in them?
The machines were new and he was part of the test study.
It was a routine and it provided him with companionship.
He didn’t like it b/c if his hand is cured he will be returned to the war.
Do you do things you don’t believe in?
Why do you think the major is angry one day?
You should never place yourself in a position where you can lose something that you love. Therefore, according to the major, a man should never marry.
His wife died. She is very young.
This is situational irony. It is the middle of the war with a great deal of death, but this young, beautiful and rich woman dies – unexpectedly.
What were the photographs of?
Before and after photos of hands that had been mangled and photos of the hands after they were healed.
The photos were fake.
The machine represented repetition for the major. It was a source of comfort, a comfort zone for him. It also gave him something to do.
Existentialism: the philosophy that we are in charge of our lives; that the universe is indifferent to our lives and to our suffering; that we must find meaning and purpose to our lives. God, if he exists, will not tell us. It is our responsibility to determine our moral codes, and the meaning and purpose of our lives.
Where did the photographs come from?
Go back through the story and find one example which shows each man’s loneliness or isolation:
The three “hawks”
The fourth soldier whose nose was blown off during his first hour on the front line.
The narrator
The major.
