Ernest Hemingway Relationships

In “Cross-Country Snow” as well as the other short stories compiled in Ernest Hemingway’s novel In Our Time, a strong aspect of the story seems to be the relationship between couples. These relationships are almost always faulty in some way, often causing readers to wonder why on earth the pair is together. On rare occasions in which the relationship is a positive one, or seems to be, it is sabotaged by one of the two people in it. This seems to mirror Hemingway’s own life, as he was married four times and divorced three. Whether it’s Nick and Marjorie, Mr. and Mrs. Adams, Mr. and Mrs. Elliot, or any one of the other pairings in the book, Hemingway seems to be of the opinion that most relationships are fated to fail, whether by circumstances

In fact, Hemingway takes this so far as to continually ironically describe Mr. and Mrs. Elliot as “very happy” in their story, though they are unable to have a child, Mrs. Elliot cries excessively, and they are all but separated (Hemingway 88). The husband and wife in “Cat in the Rain,” also do not have a good relationship. They are beyond distant from each other. The husband largely ignores his wife and prefers her boyish haircut. She, on the other hand, wishes to grow her hair out and have children. He doesn’t even seem to care very much about her - when tries to make an effort of keeping up conversation with her husband, going so far as to share her dreams and desires, he suggests she “get something to read,” (Hemingway 94). The implication is that the two are so at odds that it would be better had they married other people. This is further cemented with the character of the hotel-keeper. Where her husband ignores her, the hotel-keeper pays attention to the woman. He sends out a maid with an umbrella to help the woman look for the cat in the rain, and when she fails to do so, somehow locates the cat and sends it up to her room. Many couples get a pet as a stepping-stone to having a child, or even in place of one, and I believe this is what the cat is meant to symbolize. Though the husband is interested in neither a child or a cat like his wife is, the

His own mother and father have a entire conversation with each other without ever looking at one another or entering the same room in “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” and Mr. Adams leaves the house so angry afterward that he slams the door. The pair are very different on the fundamental level of beliefs - he is a doctor and she is a Christian Scientist and thus does not believe in medical care. The union is, in short, both paradoxical and laughable. A similar relationship occurs in “A Very Short Story,” as it is amusing though not paradoxical. The couple, a nurse named Luz and an unnamed soldier, fall very much in love during the war, but their relationship dissolves when the soldier goes back to America to get a job and Luz falls for a major, though they had planned to get married. The story overall is not exactly funny, but the where-are-they-now summarization at the end of the story is where the humor lies. We are informed that “[t]he major did not marry [Luz] in the spring, or any other time,” and that the soldier “contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab,” far from the romantic happily ever after either of them envisioned together earlier in their relationship (Hemingway