Hemingway's "A Way You'll Never Be": Chaos of the War

           The authenticity that Hemingway writes with when he depicts war always appeals to me and I was pulled in to “A Way You’ll Never Be” because of this. It is clear that Hemingway draws on his own experience in war as he writes about Nick Adams as an American in Italy during World War I. Hemingway even hints that Nick has been serving with the Italian army, just as Hemingway did himself, several times throughout the story. When Nick sees the remains of the battle in the town, we are told that what Nick “thought of, still, as our own dead, were surprisingly few,” meaning that he still thinks of himself as a part of the Italian army. We are given even more evidence of this later in the story when Major Paravicini refers to Nick as “Nicolo” and doesn’t recognize him in the American uniform. The story would be lacking something without the realistic quality that the parallels between Nick and Hemingway’s experiences bring out.

            Hemingway’s portrayal of the battle scene stood out to me because he managed to make the whole picture grotesque without actually describing anything in gruesome detail, but rather by stating facts. This feat seems to be indicative of Hemingway’s writing style as he keeps details to a minimum. The bodies Nick sees are described as “[lying] alone or in clumps in the grass” and all the materials that are strewn about seemed to show me the sense of chaos that Hemingway was trying to get across about the scene. The prayer books that he finds are juxtaposed with the machine guns and pictures of rape showing the disgusting nature of the war. Hemingway drives the grotesqueness of the scene home by saying that “the hot weather had swollen [the bodies] all alike regardless of nationality.” Not only did I get the repulsive picture of swollen bodies, I was also hit with the idea that the war is pointless because, in death, there is no distinction between one side and another.

            After reading “A Way You’ll Never Be,” it was clear that Nick was not only wounded by combat in the war but he was psychologically wounded as well and he cannot fully grasp who he is. He is disappointed that his wounds were “so obvious to Captain Paravicini” and he feels let down that he is not fully recovered from his wounds. Everything has become confusing to Nick. Even his identity seems to be challenged as an adjutant questions his nationality and ability to speak Italian. His train of thought seems to stray when he is talking to other people and he is frustrated by the Major’s attempts to have him rest and be attended to. Finally, his purpose in coming is deemed useless as no one really needs to see the American uniform and Major Paravicini tells Nick that he “won’t have him circulating around with no purpose.” The combination of events in this story seems to me to show Hemingway’s overall response to World War I. The chaos of the story and Nick’s uselessness coincide to give the idea that the war is pointless.

As the Semester Comes to a Close: Seventh Meeting

           Instead of meeting at Barnes and Noble this week, Ibrahim and I decided to meet at Einstein’s to change things up a bit. Both of us were excited to have a break from school and relax with our friends and families. Ibrahim told me about his Thanksgiving dinner with the American family that he and his classmates had visited. They had their Thanksgiving dinner a little early, on Monday, so that they wouldn’t impose on the family for the actual holiday. Ibrahim told me that he enjoyed the dinner a lot and that the food was good. He said he had a good time visiting with his teacher and classmates as well as with the family. He was able to talk to one of the daughters in the family who was a student at TCU so he made friends quickly. I thought it was great that Ibrahim’s teacher set the dinner up for the students because it seemed like Ibrahim had truly enjoyed his experience.

            As Ibrahim and I talked about the things we had done during the weekend, the conversation turned to movies. Ibrahim told me that he had gone to the movie theater several times during the last week to see movies like Jack and Jill and Harold and Kumar. I noticed during our meetings that he went to the movies often and he always seemed amazed when I hadn’t been to see the newest movies that were out. We talked about some popular movies for a while and he explained to me that although some of his friends raved about Inception, he didn’t really understand the whole concept. I told him that it was hard to understand under any context let alone under the grasps of a second language. He told me that his favorite movie was 21 because he liked the logic behind the counting cards and he told me that I definitely needed to watch the movie since I hadn’t before.

Ibrahim and I then discussed his plans for next semester since this semester is quickly drawing to a close. I asked him how his application process was going with the different schools and he told me about his recent talks with UTA. He had called the admissions office at UTA during the previous week and they seemed impressed with the scores on his tests. The admissions lady told him that he would almost certainly be accepted and that they would contact him soon. Ibrahim also expressed his nervousness about picking a career track to me. Although he has not quite figured out what he would like to study for sure, he has to pick something in order to keep his scholarship. He was also surprised by his father’s recent comments about his going to college next semester. He told me that his father told him that it might be a good idea to put it off another semester and take some more classes in English. Ibrahim told me that he did not think that he wanted to put off his college classes much longer and I personally don’t think that he really needs to with the way his English has improved. With all the achievements he has gotten lately, I am excited to see things are going well for him and I am glad I get to help him improve his English along the way.

Birthdays and Thanksgiving: Sixth Meeting

            Since Ibrahim had done me the favor of speaking to my class the week before, I decided to buy him coffee for our meeting to show my thanks. He was a few minutes late so I went ahead and ordered our coffees and waited for him. When he showed up I gave him his coffee and we celebrated for a bit over his fantastic scores on the English exams he had been taking. I could tell that his English had been improving week by week and I was glad to see that all of his hard work paid off in his scores. Ibrahim told me that his mom was excited and he was glad that he would be able to see his friends in Chicago.

            After we had been talking for a bit, Ibrahim told me that it had been his birthday the day before. I wish he would have told me so that I could have brought him a gift or a cake or something! His friends had woken him up the morning before with cake and presents and then he celebrated with his fellow classmates with drinks that night. He told me that he loved the way that Americans celebrated birthdays. Back home, he explained, birthdays were not as big of a deal and often you did nothing out of the ordinary for your birthday. Ibrahim told me that he really liked the way you stood out more on your birthday here and he enjoyed the presents that his friends thought to get him. I laughed as he told me that the year before, his first birthday in America, he could barely blow out all the candles on the gigantic birthday cake his friend had made him and he had to try several times to make them all go out.

             As we continued on the topic of holidays, I brought up Thanksgiving as it was coming up the next week. Ibrahim told me that he and his classmates were going to eat with an American family for Thanksgiving so they could experience the holiday together. He asked me what the holiday was about and he asked if we all told the wishes that we had for the year at the dinner table. I explained to him that it wasn’t quite like that. In my family, we all say a few things that we are thankful for at Thanksgiving at the table. I told him that it was just a way to forget about all of the worries of life for a little while and remember the good things instead of dwelling on the bad. He thought this was a great concept and we talked for a while on his knowledge of the first Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and the Native Americans. It was neat to see a different culture’s point of view on a truly American holiday. Since there is no Saudi equivalent to it, it made it all the more interesting to see how Ibrahim understood the holiday in his own terms. I am glad that he and his classmates were able to find someone to experience Thanksgiving with so they could see it from a traditional standpoint.

Family, Age, and Dating: Fifth Meeting

                In our last meeting I had asked Ibrahim if he would be interested in coming to speak to my Language and Culture class because we are required to bring a guest from another culture. I thought that it would be a good opportunity for him to be able to speak English in front of a slightly larger group of native speakers to help him improve his skills. He seemed genuinely excited about the opportunity, although a bit nervous, and so I told him that I would help him along and bring questions to guide the things he wanted to talk about in class. When I met him for our weekly coffee at the Barnes and Noble, it was clear that this was the main thing on his mind but instead of jumping straight into his presentation, I decided to change the subject for a bit to help him relax.

            We ended up talking about his family back home and how much he missed them. He told me that he hadn’t decided yet whether he was going home over the semester break or if he was going to travel instead. I asked him how often he was able to talk to his parents because of the large time difference but he surprised me by telling me that he made time to talk to his mom every morning. I couldn’t believe how often he made an effort to talk to his mom and I felt like a slacker for not talking to my mom as often when she only lives thirty minutes away! He told me that back home family was very important and, since he had a big family, he liked to talk to them as often as possible. We then talked a little about his next closest younger brother and sister. Ibrahim told me that he was proud of his little brother because he spoke English very well already and when he left, his brother’s English was actually better than his own. He also told me that his sister was very smart and one of the best students at the school she went to, but she was also a bit of a trouble maker. She always wanted to do new experiments and try new things. One time she even broke into the school labs and stole some chemicals to try an experiment but his mother caught her and made her return them. After talking to Ibrahim for a while about his sister, I realized that I didn’t know how old he was so I asked him. He told me that he was twenty-one. Surprised that he was older than me, I told him to guess how old I was. He told me that he thought I was about twenty-three! When I told him I was nineteen he couldn’t believe it. I explained to him that U.S. students graduate from high school sooner than Saudi students do and so although I am a sophomore, I am younger than he is.

            We then turned the conversation back to his presentation and in order to prepare him for my class, I explained to him that a common question for our guests had been about the dating practices in different cultures. Ibrahim told me that dating was technically illegal in Saudi Arabia but everyone practiced it discretely anyway. He told me that when he was ready to start looking for a wife, he would actually ask his mother to find a suitable girl for him. When she found one that she thought he would like, they would arrange a meeting between the families in order for them to meet. If he liked her after the first meeting then they would continue to meet with a chaperone until they got married. Dating in Saudi is drastically different from in the U.S. and because it is illegal to date, most dates are held with the parents within the homes to prevent any kind of trouble.

            Needless to say, Ibrahim’s presentation to my class was great! My teacher was really impressed with how well he spoke English after only a year in the U.S. and my classmates enjoyed learning about the difficulties he had faced in trying to adapt to a new culture. I even got the chance to see Ibrahim write some Arabic on the board to show us the differences in the alphabet and the way he was used to reading from right to left instead of left to right like we do here. It helped me appreciate even more the challenges he had to face in order  to learn English.

Hemingway's "Indian Camp": Reflecting on Masculinity

                After reading Ernest Hemingway’s “Indian Camp,” I was left with a feeling of discontent and a bit of disgust initially. The death of the husband in the story seems to be taken lightly by onlookers, and the focus of the birth is placed not on the actual birth of the child but rather the procedure that is carried out by the doctor as Nick looks on. Nevertheless, the way the story is presented intrigued me and kept my interest in the scene that unfolded. After looking deeper I found that I really enjoyed the techniques that Hemingway put to use in order to show conflicting images of people within the story The experience of Nick as he plays “intern” for his father is unique and expresses quite a different view of the situation as a whole.

            Something that I felt was an underlying factor in “Indian Camp” was the role reversal between the Indian squaw and her husband. While the squaw has to endure the pain of child birth without anesthetic and suffer through the pain, her husband is the one who decides that the atmosphere is too much to bear as he takes his own life with a razor. The husband portrays the stereotypically feminine reactions in the short story and the doctor comments on how the fathers are often “the worst sufferers in these little affairs” before they find that the man is dead. I also saw this emphasis in Nick’s conversation with his father after they have left the shanty. Nick’s father tells Nick that “not very many” men kill themselves but women “hardly ever” do, implying that although either death is seldom, men are more likely than women to commit suicide rather than stick through the ordeal and portray classically masculine qualities. The way the death is treated by Nick’s father is what brought on my feeling of early distaste towards the end of the story because there is no real closure in the Indian man’s death; the doctor just moves on as if it is no more than a routine side effect of birth.

            I thought it was unexpected and somewhat odd that Hemingway reflected so much on Nick’s father’s experience of the birth as a triumph in his role of doctor rather than playing off of the mother’s role in the birth of the child. Nick’s father tells him that the woman’s “screams are not important” because they don’t play a role in his birthing of the child. After the doctor has finished performing the surgery, he even brags to Uncle George that “doing a Caesarian with a jackknife and sewing it up with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders” is something to be proud of. I was impressed by the way that Hemingway turned a feminine act into a masculine triumph in this short story and the way he contrasted the doctor’s strength with the weakness of the Indian father.