IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
I liked this story
very much. And I think I know why. You see, one of my favourite writers is
Somerset Maugham. And this short story reminds me of Maugham’s style. An
interesting ending – that’s the point. An unexpected one.
Structurally,
Hemingway creates three recurrent ideas: Nick's break with society; the
subsequent establishment of his "code"; and the wound, which
influences the first two factors. Nick's wound, while not always displayed or
talked about, nevertheless plays a central role in this story. Nick feels
alienated from the three "hawks" and aligns himself with the young
soldier who was wounded in the face, who was not at the front "long enough
to be tested."
Another interesting
character is the major. He teaches Nick grammar and teaches him to live: "A man
must not marry”. We later learn that the major's wife, much younger than he,
has just died from pneumonia after three days of suffering. The major cannot
resign himself to the loss of his wife. He is crushed, shattered by the news.
This story combines two characters. The first is an older hero, a man
who has confronted life and has experienced the hard, cruel world but has not
given in to any display of emotion. He never talks of his own bravery; he lives
a highly disciplined life until he has to confront the death of his wife. The second,
in contrast to the older character, young Nick Adams, the innocent soldier who
is just entering into a world of war and violence
(by Asya)
The short story "In another country” is about the
wounded soldiers, about a great love to one’s own country. In this story we can
see the main character. It is an American soldier and at the same time the
narrator. And the secondary character is the doctor. Hemingway shows us the
physical and emotional losses of the war. He shows us the damaging effects that
the war has of people’s life and they never be the same again. They need to
adapt to new world that’s why they try to change their habits and values.
In
this story we can see changes in Nick’s life. He is not only a boy who believes
in peace and comfort and the world without violence but also a man who has nightmares,
who saw a great deal of unpleasantness not only in the war. He changes not only
physically but also morally. He begins to think in another way.
(by Tanya)
Life itself is a
very difficult thing and it doesn’t matter whether you want or not, but every
day you face different problems. From one story to another one Nick looks into
himself trying to analyse people’s tragedies relying on his own experience. We
can’t say that he is aware of everything, he is just an observer. And maybe
sometimes he tries to guess how to solve this or that problem. But these
tryings just make him degrade in some way because it’s too difficult for a small
boy to withstand the injustices of life.
Nick really
faces many unpleasant things, and actually not only in the war, but also in his
usual life. This is a kind of challenge for him. It seems that the author just
tries to testify whether Nick stays strong in every situation or not. And Nick’s
character changes greatly. At first, we regard him only as a father’s son who
just wants to hide away from everything. But then, during all the other stories
we see that Nick becomes a conscious person. And maybe he treats life as
something more than just usual commonness.
We can feel that
the atmosphere is charging from one chapter to another one. And some things are
accumulated greatly just to make the effect of a complete story that tends not
only to describe and narrate but also to make the readers feel everything just
by reading some special words or phrases. That is why the story is full of
different objects and images. They are here not only to make the story more
interesting to read but also to help to imagine everything in one’s mind.
(by Luck)
