In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time is a collection of short stories all pertaining to common themes. The major theme of the book is how youthful innocence, fatherhood, and death are all connected. Although the stories do not all share common characters, plot, or even location this thread can be seen throughout the book.

The theme comes into play in the very first story of the book, "Indian Camp". A boy, Nick, and his father, Henry, go to an Indian village to help deliver a woman’s baby. During the course of labor Henry attempts to teach his son about how babies are delivered. Through this gesture Henry seems to be caring, attempting to teach his son a useful skill, but during the entire event Nick is completely uninterested and he “was looking away” (17), as “His curiosity had been gone for a long time” (17). Later in the chapter Nick sees the body of the Indian father, who had cut his own throat from “ear to ear” (18). During the experience young Nick, who still calls his father “Daddy” (19), lost his childhood innocence. On the way back to his home Nick asks his father several questions to include, “Is dying hard, Daddy?” (19), and his father responds “No, I think it’s pretty easy, Nick” (19). Hemingway echoes this thought in his description of the Indian father’s death; he simply “rolled over against the wall” (16) and no one realized he was dead until Henry pulled the quilt off him. In his death the Indian also symbolizes Hemingway’s opinion of fatherhood, which is that fathers are required to take the innocence from their sons.

This opinion can be seen in a later story, "My Old Man", with Joe and his father, a jockey. The story, narrated by Joe, starts with innocent father-son workouts and Joe describing himself as being “nuts about the horses” (117). The story seems innocent at first but by the end of the story this opinion takes a complete 180. The first significant event during the story is when Joe and his father leave their home in Milan to live in Paris after a scene during which two men accuse his father of being a “son of a bitch” (118). While attending a race in Paris Joe’s father asks George, the jockey riding the odds favorite, who is going to win the race. George tells him that his horse, Kzar, “won’t win” (121) and that he should bet on Kircubbin instead. Joe’s father does just that and ends up winning the bet after a very close finish between Kzar and Kircubbin. When Joe asks his father what he thought of the race his father responds, “It sure took a great jockey to keep that horse Kzar from winning the race,” (124) admitting that the race was rigged. Joe has a different opinion of the jockey, calling him a “son of a bitch” (124). Hemingway did not repeat this accidently; in fact his reuse of the phrase is genius. In the last scene of the story Joe’s father dies in a race and Joe overhears the reactions of two men watching the race, saying that “Butler got his, all right” and that “the crook had it coming to him on the stuff he pulled” (129). Through his death Joe’s father solidifies his son’s loss of innocence.

There are many other parts of In Our Time where the connectedness of youthful innocence, fatherhood, and death can be seen but the length limitation of this blog ends my analysis here.

The Dubliners

James Joyce's The Dubliners is a short story sequence during which the reader is immersed into the lives of 19th century Dubliners. The major themes of the book include the repetition of daily life and death. These themes penetrate and play a role in every story. The people in the book never seem happy with the difficult and boring repetition that is their daily lives, and yet are unable to do anything about it. The thing that restrains them is not their ability to make change but instead their unwillingness to do so. For example in “Eveline,” a young woman is considering leaving home with a sailor named Frank to begin a new life in Buenos Aires, where “he would give her life, perhaps even love” (31), but at the last moment she becomes “passive, like a helpless animal” (32) and does not get on the boat with Frank. Frank has given her the ability to start a new life but Eveline is too afraid to take the action necessary to do so. This theme of helplessness can also be seen in “The Boarding House” where Mr Doran, a “thirty-four or thirty-five year” (52) old man, is essentially forced to marry the 19 year old daughter of his landlady, Polly, with whom he has been having an affair with. This is all despite the fact that “his instinct urged him to remain free, not to marry.” (54) Maybe Joyce is simply frowning upon sexual relations between two unmarried people. Or perhaps through these anecdotes of its people Joyce is instead attempting to characterize the city of Dublin; a city in which everyone seems to be miserable and yet no one makes any change or even effort towards change, a city that is paralyzed. The 9th line of the first chapter even alludes to this when the narrator states as he stares out of his window at Dublin, “Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis.”

Death ties into this theme of paralysis, which is evident in first chapter of the book. This chapter, “The Sisters,” explores the death of Father Flynn, an ex-priest accused of simony. Apparently not even death was escape for “poor James” (10), as the narrator recalls, “The fancy came to me that the old priest was smiling as he lay there in his coffin. But no…he was not smiling.” (8) It is also interesting to note the reaction of the child narrator to the death on page 6, “I found it strange that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood.” The city seems to go on as if nothing has happened, and yet it revolves around death. The character Gabriel Conroy seems to be a microcosm of Joyce’s purpose for writing the book. The character attends a party hosted by his aunts during which he expresses his wish to leave Dublin and Ireland altogether. At the feast Gabriel gives a toast during which he addresses both death and the paralysis of daily life. It reads as follows, “Therefore I will not linger on the past. I will not let any gloomy moralizing intrude upon us here tonight. Here we are gathers together for a brief moment from the bustle and rush of our everyday routine.” (177) This proposal could not have come at a more opportune time for Joyce and his The Dubliners, as his book “dies” twenty pages later.

In conclusion The Dubliners was the portrayal of Ireland and the city of Dublin at the turn of the century by James Joyce and his literary genius.

The Country of the Pointed Firs Response

When reading The Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that it is perhaps the most descriptive series of stories I have ever read. In her writing Jewett uses fantastic, colorful words to describe the setting and events that occur. Words and phrases such as “the few houses which seemed to be securely wedged and tree-nailed in among the ledges by the Landing” (7), “The hot midsummer sun makes prisons of these small islands that are a paradise in early June, with their cool springs and short thick-growing grass” (33), and “Elijah Tilley…was in a thick blue flannel shirt with white crockery buttons, a faded waistcoat and trousers heavily patched at the knees”(104), are examples of the depth with which she describes her stories in. Her words and style of writing are extremely well planned out, and gives the reader a sense that they are witnessing the events in the book first hand. Jewett even leaves the narrator unnamed, so as to aid the reader in their own immersion into the story. However, the book is more than just a detailed account of the events and scenery that surround Dunnet Landing. This can be seen by analyzing Jewett’s style of writing.

Her style of writing involves extremely descriptive narrations all with a common thread, and thus can be classified as a short story cycle. The thread is not linear however; as there is no real order or reason as to why one story follows the other. Instead it can be better classified as a tree with many branches, each connected to the trunk. In lieu of using plot to connect the different parts of her story, Jewett uses location. This allows her to essentially take the reader wherever she would like with the story without being accused of rambling. Also by using this style, Jewett is attempting to inform the readers that plot is not everything in a story and that a book can instead be substantiated and even enhanced by an investigation of the lives of different characters. Even further Jewett asserts that people can be enhanced by stories and storytelling. Evidence of this can be seen when Captain Littlepage recounts the story of the waiting place. Captain Littlepage, who had earlier been described as “an aged grasshopper of some strange human variety” (15) and “pale and old” (14), comes to life as he tells the story. In fact he undergoes a complete 180, “spr[inging] to his feet in excitement” (26) and regaining his “alert, determined look and the seafaring, ready aspect” (27). In my mind Jewett’s work is a lasting legacy of the attitude people used to have about the lives of others. They actually cared about and were interested in the occurrences of others lives.

Throughout the book almost every character has their personal story revealed (or at least some part of it), with the exception of the narrator. In my opinion this omission is Jewett’s way of persuading her readers to explore the lives and stories of others, instead of their own. Jewett could have opted to tell the story of the narrator in The Country of the Pointed Firs, but instead uses the narrator as a medium to tell the stories of others. She even goes as far as to use the characters the narrator meets as a medium to tell the stories of others.

Only through a thorough analysis of Jewett’s writing style can her stories be appreciated fully for what they are; a look into a distant past where people cared about others and their lives, and a plea for people to be concerned with more than just themselves.

What is the difference between a novel and a short story?

In my opinion a novel is a highly descriptive and involving story in which the reader is heavily invested in, whereas a short story is a bare-boned literary experience during which the reader is only expected to draw major themes from. Readers of novels are required to spend more time and energy in order to experience the story; however they are rewarded with fantastic insight to the characters and their lives. A short story on the other hand is less demanding on the reader because the plot develops quicker and comes to a climax sooner than in a novel. A metaphor that can be used to compare the two is the following: Imagine watching a baseball game in its entirety, all nine innings, every pitch, and every play. Consider this the “novel.” Now imagine watching Sportscenter late at night and catching only the highlights of the game. Consider this the “short story.” In both cases the person watching receives mostly the same information: the score, the big plays of the game, the home runs, the errors, etc. The major difference between the two experiences is that the person who watched the full game was able to get every detail of the game while the person who simply watched Sportscenter only caught the overall or major plot details.

What is the result of this difference in styles?

Because authors of short stories must move their plots along quicker than authors of novels, short stories tend to be full of action, rather than exposition. This means that readers of short stories are unable to get to know the characters as well as readers of novels, but this does not mean that short stories are less satisfying or rewarding to read. In fact short stories are perhaps the ideal medium for authors impart their opinions and values. Short stories don’t overload the reader with details (or pages for that matter); instead they cut right to the chase allowing readers to more easily draw upon major themes or lessons from the material, which they can hopefully apply directly to their lives. Novels, with their many plot twists and turns, tend to be an experience for readers rather than a lesson. Readers of novels go into their reading with the attitude that they will be shocked and awed by the linguistic wizardry of the author. This difference in styles results in two completely different works which have two completely different purposes, even though short stories and novels share the same plot components (setting, conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution).