Using Love to Justify Sex in A Very Short Story
At first glance unusually normal, at second glance unusually striking, the title "A Very Short Story" reveals Hemingway's perception of a perhaps unforgotten war experience. Man went to war. He met woman. They spent many nights together. They considered marriage. He went home without her. She moved on. He moved on. The end. The story, the relation of events, is indeed short. This is not eternal spiritual love; instead, this is the animalistic, barbaric sexual act- sex and love for the sole purpose and convenience of sex itself. Then it is over.
The story begins on "ONE HOT evening in Padua" (Hemingway, 65), "hot" relating to passionate feelings, and "evening" as the perfect time for an affair. The reader can deduct from the reference to Padua, a city in northeast Italy, that perhaps the character is at war, and in fact, this is confirmed in the fourth paragraph with a reference of an "armistice" (65). The main character himself is referred to as "he", though, knowing the author's biographical history, and presence in the war, "Hemingway" is a presumable substitution. "They" (65), his war buddies, "carried him up onto the roof", they carried him because he was injured, but also, as "the others went down and took the bottles with them", very likely intoxicated. There, he and the female figure, "Luz" meet, she "sat on the bed", and "was cool and fresh in the hot night". Immediately, alcohol, guy and girl, a rather convenient bed, and a "hot" night left alone on the rooftop combine, forming a passionate love affair.
So, who is this Luz? Well, apparently, as she was "on night duty" (65), and she was the one who "prepared him for the operating table", she is a...
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...ncoln Park." (66).
Man went to war. He met woman. They spent many nights together. They considered marriage. He went home without her. She moved on. He moved on. The end.
It is a short story, and it is a simple one. Simple attraction of the opposite sexes. Simple sex. Simple break up. Simple recovery. Without the talk of marriage, it resembles any animal mating ritual on the Discovery Channel.
Interesting that the story ends with the onslaught of gonorrhea, as the cycle is continued, and thus, the simple recovery transforms magically to painful consequences. Perhaps, in Hemingway's own life, the simple recovery of losing a mistress after the war transforms and somehow contributes partly to his own suicide many years later.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. "A Very Short Story." In Our Time. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1925.
The idea of challenging an unreasonable law is central to both King, Jr.'s and Thoreau's plights, though each have very distinct characteristics unique to themselves. In King, Jr.'s case, he saw segregation and racial discrimination as mistakes on the part of the government and he set out to make substantial changes to the status quo. In doing so, he acted upon Thoreau's concept that every person retains the right to judge civil laws for decency and credibility. "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws," (Birmingham Jail 82). Should one find the law to be in the best interest of each individual as well as society as a whole, he should abide by it and make every effort to live by its standard. But reversely, should the law be found guilty of evil intentions and causing more harm than good, it is the duty of every person under that law to disregard it and make an attempt "to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support," (Disobedience 6).
King clears up any idea that he’s just someone who has broken the law for no reason. He does this by saying; “I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” (Para 15) This statement tells us that Dr. King is simply adhering to his moral responsibility by doing as he’s supposed to. He knows that following a one-sided makes no sense, and it would be submitting to evil. He even goes on to quote St. Augustine, declaring that, “an unjust law is no law at all.” (Para 15) Therefore, the segregation laws that were implemented in Birmingham at the time were by St. Augustine’s logic, no law at
...iscrimination will not occur. It is also important to post some of the Title VII laws, so that employees will understand what to do in case they feel they have been discriminated against.
Sexual orientation discrimination is the unfair treatment of someone solely based on their sexual orientation. Unlike sexual harassment and gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination is not protected under Title VII. However, there are state and local laws that prohibit it (Moran,
King urged people to obey laws, but the exception is unjust laws. "...there are two types of laws: just and unjust...One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws," (King). He quotes St. Augustine in saying "an unjust law is no law at all." He goes on to describe a just law as a law that follows moral law and the law of God. He describes an unjust law as out of harmony with moral law, and a human law not rooted in eternal and natural
...overlooked in the workplace. Title VII has changed the pre-employment process in that the interviewer must be careful in the questions that are posed to the interviewee. The interviewer should not ask questions that can be deemed discriminatory. A rule of thumb is to limit questions that have to do with a person’s private life. As an employer, it must be made clear that discrimination will not be tolerated in the workplace. Employers and employees need to become familiar with what constitutes discrimination. Employees need to be informed of the employer’s position as it relates to workplace discrimination. An employer should adopt policies that address this issue in the form of employee handbooks and/or in house training for all employee levels, including what steps will be taken for violations. If the employer and employee work together to prevent these forms of discretions, it can help curtail some of the litigiousness surrounding this issue.
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.
... seemingly simplistic. Hemingway discovered a way to demonstrate the complexity of the human spirit and identity through simplistic diction, word choice, and sentence structure. The story is only a small part of the deeper inner complex of the narrative. The short story allows a fluidity of thoughts between the individual and the characters without ever actually describing their thoughts. With no ending the story is completely left to interpretation providing no satisfactory ending or message.
Hemingway takes care to spin a perfectly developed plot and then suddenly in a single page, a few strokes of the pen, he sends it tumbling down. Why? Hemingway writes,” ‘Halt,’ I said. they kept on down the muddy road, the hedge on either side. ‘I order you to halt,’ I called. They went a little faster. I opened my holster, took the pistol, aimed at the one who talked the most, and fired.” (Hemingway 177) Frederic Henry, the book’s ever changing main character, who throughout the book is distant from the war and who grows to detest it has suddenly become firmly embroiled in it. He killed a man for no reason at all and has furthered the war which he seemed to oppose. Hemingway does this in order to bring the war to the forefront of the novel.
Hemingway, Ernest. "To Maxwell Perkins." 16 Nov. 1933. Ernest Hemingway/Selected Letters, 1917-1961. Ed. Carlos Baker. New York: Charles Scribner?s Sons, 1981. 400.
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...
A Farewell To Arms written by Ernest Hemingway illustrates a typical love story between two people, this love story plays out in a war torn Italy during world war I, where Italy was battling Austria, the novels main characters, lieutenant Fredrick Henry an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army and Catherine Barkley an English volunteer nurse who served in Italy. The novel portrays Henry as a drunk who traveled from one house of prostitution to the next, he was not happy with his lifestyle. Henry feels detached from life and is on a quest for identification, he gives a particular insight about how he feels about women “clear, cold and dry”. Henry loved to play the role of a womanizer. He is isolated from his family and compatriots. He is an American fighting a war in another country. In my opinion Henry is emotionally exhausted and it appears he has no place to go. Henry meets Catherine Barkley, near the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Catherine suffered during this war before she met Henry. Catherine had lost her fiancé during this war. She was startled by rain in her nightmares. She perceived rain as death. At first Henry wanted to seduce the nurse, to him it was a game, he had told the nurse that he loved her, but she had caught on to his game. Catherine confronted Henry and told him what she thought of his game. He was severely wounded on one of his runs. Henry was sent to the American hospital where Catherine worked. That is where he actually began to fall in love with her. He fully recovered and returned to the war-front, during a retreat the Italians started to fall apart. Henry shot an engineer sergeant under his command for dereliction, later in the confusion Henry is arrested by the battle police for the crime of not being Italian. He is disgusted with the army and facing death at the hands of the battle police during questioning. Henry decided he has had enough of the war, he ran into the river to escape. After swimming to safety, Henry boards a train to reunite with his love Catherine whom is pregnant with his child. Here is where he meets with an Italian bartender who will help him escape to Switzerland by boat. Henry and Catherine plan to get married soon after the baby is born.
From an early age, Ernest Hemingway found himself obsessed with the subject of heroism. He looked up to his grandfather, who he saw as a hero, and sought to fulfill the war legacy left behind by joining the army. Hemingway was a participant in many wars, but one in particular shaped the rest of his life and his outlook on the world. It was during the end of World War I and Hemingway was serving the Italian army as an ambulance driver. During the battle at Fossalta di Piave, Hemingway circulated the trenches with chocolates, providing them to soldiers. Out of nowhere, an Austrian trench mortar shell exploded a few feet away from Hemingway, killing one man and wounding many others (Meyers, p.30). Hemingway was one of these wounded men. It was once said by Ted Brumback that Hemingway had acted heroically, for once he regained consciousness, he picked up a wounded man and carried him to the first aid dugout despite his own serious leg wounds (Meyers, p.30). Considered the turning point in his life, Hemingway had faced death but been called a “hero” as a result of it. Even though Hemingway’s obsession with heroism was still prevalent throughout his life, and this event on July 8, 1918, made its way into many of his novels, the heroes Hemingway wrote about never forsook glory or fortune. They were more concerned with the righting of wrongs and the longing of experience (Baker (2), p.129). In Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, the protagonist Frederic Henry is more obviously a form of Hemingway, but also a prime example of the heroes Hemingway liked to write about. Even though Henry faced danger, pain, and death throughout this wartime novel, none of it was glorified. Despite his obsession with heroism in war, while writing the novel...
Based on the reviews that were found, it can be concluded that Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, depicts a hauntingly realistic love story between Catherine and Fredric, one that was intense and more real than what was traditional presented in previous romances. More importantly, due to the publication of this work, it could be said that Hemingway changed the accepted style of writing, pushing his mastered technique into the forefront or even into the arena to be taken seriously. The reviews also point out that, the majority of individuals seemed to sense a huge growth in Hemingway’s writing in this book and felt that due to this, Hemingway had moved into a recognizable writer who had made a significant contribution to the world of literature.