Interpretation of Chapter Intermissions
A sharp contrast is apparent between the chapter introductions and the following short episodes of each section in Hemingway's In Our Time. When comparing the introductions to the sections in between we see there is a transition from the war time experiences of an as of yet unknown narrator to several instances of family life that seem to revolve around our main character Nick Adams. What kind of effect might you believe Hemingway is trying to have on the reader by using these introductions of detached war-time memories?
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I feel that Hemingway is trying to contrast two situations taking place during that time period; one of home and one of war. The Nick Adams stories show that life is still carrying on despite there being turmoil in other places around the world.
I believe that War is what Hemingway knows, it is what motivated him to write, it is how he can express himself. Having the war time memories precourser the stories about nick and his life help the reader to see parts of nicks life as metaphor for war related events.
I think what Hemingway is trying to portray in this novel is alot closer to home then what has been discussed in lecture. He has witnessed the atrocities of war and he looks back at them in the introductions in a shell shocked, numb, manner. The chapters on Nick's life show the naive freedom that is brought on by adolescence, and perhaps this represents all soldiers feelings before going off to experience life that will most likely numb out that naive freedom.
I think that Ernest Hemingway is trying to engage the reader in the type of situation that the reader would be in with war. He is sharing his personal experiences and feelings with the reader. Hemingway's way of life could have been very similar to that of Nick Adams, and Hemingway may be seeing himself as the Nick Adams character. He may also be trying to show the reader that war may occur around the world, but people are still continuing on with their lives.
So far, the introductions explain experiences in the war and then the chapter itself talks about family. The introductions mainly are a short description of what is about to be told. I feel using the introductions involving war memories, Hemingway can show how the war experiences can be related to what was going on back home.
I think that the introductions give us a background in the character portrayed in the following chapter and and explanation for their behavior and emotions. For example, in "Soldier's Home", the gruesome details about the war that Krebs experienced gives the reader an insight as to why he is so detached from his family and life at home.
I think Hemingway is continuing with the sparse, detached narration that he uses throughout the book. It seems to me that the episodes may vaguely hit on something from the chapter. Nick is mentioned a couple times, but then Chapter VII just uses 'he' and ends with a comment about taking a girl upstairs with 'him.' The following pages discuss Krebs and his feeling towards women. I'm wondering if the passages don't serve a variety of purposes, from foreshadowing to providing a little more of "the iceberg."
The mechanism Hemingway uses jars the reader into remebering that during those passages of Nick at home that, however melancholy they might be, there is always the possiblity for it to get worse in the future, or that it is worse for other people at this momment. Life doesn't get better, it get worse; or it stays the same and gets worse for other people. This is in direct opposition to what everyone is taught growing up or what they are told when going through hard times.
The intentions of the Chapter Intermissions may be to provide a very stark contrast in the life of Nick. It is almost as if Hemingway is trying to show the extent of what a soldier had to deal with on a day to day basis and then when he returned he would see the appreciated thankfulness of a "boring indiscript" world w/o the ever-present fears of war.
I think that Hemmingway is trying to use a sort of parallelism with the chapter introductions. The stories usually deal with family life, which on the surface seem ideal and serene, but with a closer look there is a lot of turmoil which is parallel to the turmoil that was happening in the war, which takes place in the introductions
I think that Hemingway was trying, with the short introductions,to say that the war is tough. It is a tough place to live in and a tough place to remember. With the longer stories after, he is trying to portray the life at home and hopefully show comparison between the two. That life is tough at home also. In "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," Hemingway tries to show life at home is not breezy. In the short introduction beforehand, he shows the lives of people in the war, struggling to merely survive.
Hemingway may be trying to show a detachment in the family life as well. Neither life is perfect and by reading the wartime passages inbetween each short story the reader is reminded of that. Although the events in the short stories seem harmless, each story gives a hidden satire on the idealist views such as the suicide or the fight between the doctor and his wife.
Hemingway might be introducing the stories with snapshots of war in order to critique the middle class American family. Hemingway sets a very serious tone for the short story, and contrasts it with a mundane, trivial middleclass life. This is shown most clearly in Soldier's Home.
While these short introductions about war could be seen as a critique of middle class life, it appears that he's using them more to give us a setting for the entire book. In order for them to be a critique of middle class life he'd have to effectively glorify war, which would border on sentimentality towards war, and Hemingway never borders on sentimentality. These short "interruptions" seem more to function as a thread to show what's going on outside of the stories themselves. They serve as the big picture to the little picture of Nick Adams's and Krebs's life.
I believe that the chapters we have been reading are put in this book to show us how Nick will develop into a person. I see the short introductions as the real story and the beginning chapters as flashbacks that will allow us to understand Nick as a person.
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