In Our Time

When I was working through the first half of In Our Time, I thought that this was the most novelistic short story cycle we’ve read thus far. The stories in the first half seem linear, and follow the same character, Nick Adams and seem to chart some kind of development for him. However, this linear form breaks with “A Very Short Story,” Hemingway’s semi-autobiographical story, and the stories continue to be disparate and not immediately related to one another. However, many of the stories hold powerful thematic links that stress the futility of human existence and the difficulties of dealing with the wounds that lie just underneath the surface of the psyche.

In terms of writing style, Hemingway is even more pared down than Anderson. His style is so spare, and just gives us the bare essentials we need to know to figure things out for ourselves. I find there is a lot of subtext within the stories where we can then extrapolate about the characters’ motivations. I also sense that there is a frustration within many of these characters, but it doesn’t necessarily manifest itself in a great paroxysm as it does with Anderson and Joyce’s characters. For instance, in “Soldier’s Home,” the character of Krebs, like Nick Adams in “Big Two-Hearted River,” does not want to think about the atrocities of wartime – his solitude belies a fear that any attempt to reintegrate himself into society will shore up these painful memories. As such, Krebs resents his parents’ attempts to urge him to seek employment and reintegrate himself into society – Krebs realizes the futility of civilian life. As the narrator states, “He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated….He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way” (Hemingway 77). The repetition of these similar phrases speaks, thematically, to someone who is trying to keep himself free of the complexities that are percolating just under the surface, but are just being hinted at as they begin to unravel.

Similarly, in “Cat in the Rain,” the American wife quibbles about the things she wants, speaking to her dissatisfaction with the current state of her life. However, the narrative closes just as her wish for a cat has the potential to be fulfilled. I felt this story was a comment on the need to believe, in American society, that you will be fulfilled if you simply own the right items. However, the insatiability of her demands suggest that she will not find happiness.