Analysis Of In Another Country By Ernest Hemingway

Wounds Cut Deeper than the Skin
In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, War is defined as “a situation in which people or groups compete with and fight against each other”. Ever since the dawn of man, there has been war. Everyone knows what war brings; violence and pain. Many people who go fight for their country don’t live to see the end of the war, and many still make it back physically unharmed. But what about the people in the middle, the ones who survived but were seriously injured and crippled? In his story, “In Another Country”, Ernest Hemingway paints a dismal picture of how fleeting moments of joy, crushed dreams, rejection, and terrible loss plague the life of a wounded World War I soldier. To begin his story, Hemingway gives the …show more content…
For starters, the main character claims to have practiced football back in the States, before he went off to war. Nowadays, in 2016, if one plays football in America, regardless of level, it is a very serious matter and most people who play train year round for the fall season. It can only be assumed that in the early 20th century the attitude towards America’s Game was the same. At some point, nearly every kid dreams of being a superstar athlete. Since the Narrator played football up until the time he left for the war, it can be assumed that he had the same aspirations as most sport players. The Italian major also had an incredible athletic talent; he was the top fencer in Italy. The aspiration this major probably had were as high as any athlete that has ever lived: olympic medal, world championships, etc. Both of these men had crippling that all but ruined their careers and any dreams they had of being a superstar athlete. The Narrator describes his leg as a “...knee that did not bend and the leg dropped straight from the knee to the ankle without a calf…” (Tate/Hemingway 120). Clearly, nobody would be able to play any sport on a leg that beaten, let alone football. The Major didn’t have anything wrong with his legs, but his hand was what was damaged beyond repair. There’s no way anybody could fence with a hand as badly mangled as the …show more content…
The Major what the Narrator wants to do after the war and he responds that he would like to get married and move back to the States. This seems to trigger the Major because he quickly becomes frustrated and tells the Narrator he should not marry. He quickly becomes angry, rips his hand out of the machine and storms out of the room. Shortly after, it is revealed that the Major’s wife just died and his emotions have been a mess because of it. In this story, the Major has clearly lost more than anyone could hope to bear and this quote explains it perfectly; “‘He cannot marry… if he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that. He should not place himself in a position to lose. He should find things he cannot lose.’” (Tate/Hemingway 123). This quote shows perfectly how much the Major had lost; everything, and he knows it. The joking, personable character the Major was quickly changed to a sad, aloof shell of a man who, once he returned to rehab, did nothing but stare out the window in despair despite the doctors’ best efforts to bring up his