Cycles of Violence in The Battler
Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler" provides a continued account of Nick Adams' dangerous and violent life. Previous stories compiled in "The Short Stories" edition of Hemingway's work documents some of the tribulations of Nick Adams, one of Hemingway's protagonists. Apparently, Nick has been plagued by moments of sheer humility, terror, and immutable violence. In the Hemingway short story "Indian Camp," Nick is a young boy who witnesses a dreadfully difficult birth by a Native American woman, enduring all the while the hubris of his surgeon father, who is contestibly insensitive to Nick's innocence. Once the birth has ended, the husband of the woman is found with a freshly slit throat, again viewed by the young Nick. In "The End of Something," another short story from the same compilation, an older Nick Adams breaks of a listless relationship with Marjorie, his girlfriend. Nick reveals his disgust with being committed to Marjorie during a fishing trip, and the proximity of the two in the boat coupled with the inability for either to escape the immediate situation results in moments of tense humiliation for both. Indeed, the scene percolates with subdued violence.
In the case of "The Battler," the violence is not so heavily subdued. Nick is traveling on a train, probably as a vagabond, and is knocked off of his mode of transportation with a clout to the head by a "lousy crut of a brakeman." (p. 129) This is not a narrated situation, but the reader is made aware of Nick's predicament after the fact as Nick finds himself watching the "caboose going out of sight around the curve" and "touch(ing) the bump over his eye." (p. 129) He finds his hands scraped and the skin on his knees b...
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...not escape his destiny: he is a living punching bag, and Nick, in his timely fashion, has not only witnessed another violent episode in this man's life, but has taken part in its occurrence. The two become linked in this dangerous moment. In a moment of foreshadowing, Nick's future teeters on the possibility of a life like Ad's. Before dinner, Ad and Bugs had speculated: "He says he's never been crazy, Bugs." "He's got a lot coming to him," Bugs had softly spoken. (p. 133) Nick's scars and hits are, at this time in his life, only more easily hidden than Ad's. Too late, however: Ad and Bugs have seen his potential to become "crazy," a "battler" as well, though he knows that, as in Ad's case, yours is rarely the winning side.
Bibliography
Hemingway, Ernest: The Short Stories. Simon and Schuster, New York, First Scribner Paperback Fiction Edition, 1995
Recommendations: It is recommended that our law office regretfully deny service to Ms. Carry based upon the precedent in Kentucky. Based upon the analysis the issue, it is apparent that Ms. Carry would not receive a promising conclusion to her situation. Due to the facts involved and the cases discussed (which are somewhat on point) Ms. Carry does not make a claim in which relief can be granted.
"The Reality of Racial Profiling." CivilRights.org. The Leadership Conference, 22 08 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. .
There have been many studies and case reports involving racial profiling, particularly racial profiling issues involving traffic stop and seizures. In a study done of reports on the stop-and-searches done on Interstate 95 in Maryland, it was found that 28.4 percent of black drivers and passengers and 28.8 percent of white drivers and passengers stopped were found with illegal contraband. (U.S. Department of Justice) The disparity between the two statistics is a mere .4 percent and shows that race is not an issue. Further reading into the seventy one page report written by the U.S. Department of Justice sho...
According to a 2011 report from Washington Press, “the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights found evidence of widespread racial profiling, showing that African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately likely to be stopped and searched by police, even though they’re less likely to be found possessing contraband or committing a criminal act”( Natarajan) Racial profiling has its origins in the nineteenth century, when many scientists in Europe and America tried to prove that people of certain physiques bore positive and negative personality traits that matched their physical features as stated in Racial Profiling: An
Racial Profiling has been used by law enforcement officials from early 60’s during the civil rights movement. The term “racial profiling” which was introduced to criticize abusive police practices against people of different race, ethnicity or national origin. One must assess how to understand the practice, and how to keep it distinct from other issues. Racial profiling is defined as “any police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin, rather than the behavior of an individual or information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity.” (Ramirez 5).
At the same time, however, even though people have the tendency to be dishonest, not all lies are legally prosecutable. When asked to judge another person’s appearance, for example, some tend to lie in favor of that person, just to make the person feel better. When trying to avoid doing chores, some tend to lie about being too occupied with homework. Those are what I considered to be lies in the names of politeness and laziness; lies that cause no harm to others.
In the United States of America today, racial profiling is a deeply troubling national problem. Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. The idea that people stay silent because they live in fear of being judged based on their race, allows racial profiling to live on.
Despite the fact racism has been around for hundreds of years, upcoming generations are becoming more open minded and less likely to publicly berate minorities; racial profiling, however, is the one loophole of racism America overlooks. Police officials often use the practices of racial profiling to discretely single out minority races. A common approach to this is through traffic patrols. According to a statistic based in San Jose, CA, nearly 100,000 drivers were stopped; during the year ending in June 2000; and of these drivers less than 32% were white, the remaining 68% of drivers were a...
The best thing about living in America is the right to freedom. We are free to explore the Internet and go to any site you so desire. We are free to learn hacking techniques, about tools, or even acquire hacking information. Which is not always a bad thing. You have the right to go on Yahoo Chat and let the person your chatting with know that you don’t like them. It’s that thing we call freedom of speech. So why do we want to get rid of educational information, and put a hold on Internet users freedom of speech when it not being done out in the real world.
" The Hemingway Review. 15.1 (Fall 1995): p. 27. Literature Resource Center -.
This issue should be addressed among police agencies across the country in order to stop racial profiling. Racial profiling has its negative impacts that discomfort and humiliation of many minority citizens. There are many shameful cases that officers have been a part of in not a such good way. It has become such a huge problem. Racial profiling has to be stop in every way there is, is humiliating to see and is strongly unjust. Many innocent people in this nation are killed for crimes not even done by them but are killed or punished because of the race they appear to be. Unfortunately, being racially profiled in the United States is bound to happen to many minorities; however, that doesn 't allow the acceptance of people doing it. Everyone has different opinions on Racial Profiling, but it is something that should come to an end, and many should speak up about being racially
...Nick is not yet ready for. In this way it could represent his return to civilization, which he is not yet ready for, and he therefore will continue his Edenic hiatus.
...eep my refuse away” (Pg. 177). This shows Nick’s sense of decency and friendship. He realizes that fast carousing life of the East Egg is a terrifying cover for moral emptiness from inside just like the valley of ashes. Before leaving to go back home he took care of all unfinished business. He ended his relationship with Jordan and walked away from Tom Buchanan who he only shared college experiences with. Nick needed to go back to a cleaner simpler time in life away from East Egg and the Great Gatsby. At last his greatest fear came true; he became all alone by himself. At the end he realized that he has been changed and won’t be able to go back to how he used to be. Even though his personality remains the same he is stronger from inside; not afraid of anything.
In the news every day there are stories about the ways the police abuse their power, whether through physical abuse, or simply just profiling a person because of their race. Racial profiling by the police is a common practice that police use to try and prevent a crime before it happens. Although racial profiling has been shown to disproportionally affect minorities, and has been unsuccessful more often than it has been successful, racial profiling is allowed in law enforcement and there needs to be more to discourage these practices.
Baker, Sheridan. "Hemingway?s Two-Hearted River." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays. Ed. Jackson, J. Benson. Durham: Duke UP, 1975. 158.