Monday, November 5, 2007
In Our Time & The Multiplicity of Experience
One thing you'll no doubt notice about Hemingway's short story collection is its apparent randomness: war-time prefaces, often violent, seem to introduce disjunctive narratives concerning Nick Adams and a domestic, somewhat placid homefront experience. As we discussed avant-garde aesthetics relating to the "multiplicity of perspectives," consider how the collection embodies this, but also introduces an assortment of experiences peculiar to modernity. How, if at all, do these experiences speak to one another--from the often absurd violence of war to the pre & post-war experiences of Nick and other characters. How, for example, does the style of war pieces such as "On the Quai at Smyrna" differ from that of "Indian Camp"? What themes/images do the two pieces share? What emotions do they provoke in the narrator and reader?
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Hemingway connects his seemingly unrelated narratives through the common emotions shared between the characters in pre and post WWI. In "The End of Something," Nick establishes his need of knowledge. Nick snaps suddenly at his girlfriend, accusing her of knowing everything and resenting his presumed ignorance in comparison. A lack of knowledge discomforts him, which implicates his inability to cope with unexpected situations. Similarly, in the following preface to Chapter IV, the narrator describes a seemingly perfect offensive attack. Confined only to his own personal knowledge of the attack before him, the soldier believes his side is winning. However, this illusion is shattered when he learns that “the flank had gone,” and they are, in fact, losing. This scarcity and revelation of knowledge continues throughout the rest of Hemingway’s short story collection relating common men to soldiers, and one narrative to another.
Hemingway also utilizes the emotions after a breakup to foreshadow the soldier’s need for isolation in post war society. When Nick ends his relationship with Marjorie, he rejects other relationships as he refuses the comfort of his friend Bill, preferring to be left alone with his thoughts and suffering. This need for solitude relates to a later narrative, “Soldier’s Home” in which Krebs rejects his mother’s love to “keep his life from being complicated.” Thus, isolation becomes another theme laced throughout the narratives, supported by the emotions of Hemingway’s characters.
-Michelle Cheng
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