In Our Time

The character's and dialogue portrayed in Ernest Hemingway's "In Our Time" are a perfect example of saying a lot by just saying a little. Hemingway is famous for this concise, to the point writing that leaves  certain stories ambiguous and for the reader to decipher the meaning. Basically every single vignette fell into this style along with, most poignantly, "A Very Short Story" and "The Revolutionist." What these two stories, and more of the vignettes have in common, are that the narrator and/or main protagonist is unnamed and once again ambiguous which is sort of a running theme throughout this cycle. 

It would seem that the unnamed protagonist in "A Very Short Story" is Nick Adams, the main character in many of the other stories as he is a soldier returning from war back to Chicago where Nick is from. Then again, this character could be any number of soldiers who returned home from World War I to Chicago. Obviously Nick Adams was not the only young man from the Chicago area to fight in the war. The narrator of "The Revolutionist" is even more difficult to decipher. While there story (All one and a half pages of it) are written in first-person there is absolutely no internal monologue. The narrator is just observing what is going on, not stating his opinion or thoughts or emotions. The narrator is a character in the story, not some omnipresent force telling the events from on high. He's there in the action of what is going on, yet Hemingway has him merely reporting the events of this other man, this revolutionist. The unnamed narrator could again be Nick Adams, but in perfect Hemingway form it is impossible to know for sure. 

What Hemingway has done in many of these stories is created what one could call clones of Nick Adams and placed them in stories and situations that the "real" Adams would have gotten into as well. In most of the stories or vignettes where the narrator or main character is unnamed (save for the ones about the matadors) one could easily replace the "He" or "His" or "Him" with "Nick Adams" and the stories would not be any different. There is one story however that even though the main character is named with his own identity, he could easily b replaced with Nick Adams.

In "A Soldier's Home" Krebs is a young man who has returned from Europe following World War I. Krebs has seen terrible things and is noticeably shaken and still dealing with this past trauma. His anger is only more so fueled by this bitterness that rises in him when he does not receive any sort of hero's welcome when he returns home. It is explained that Krebs did not come immediately home following the war and people even "seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over." 

Krebs is an angry young man who has lied about war stories in order to talk to people. Even when he tried to make his war stories more exciting he received a negative reaction from people which just fueled his bitterness. He seems almost dead on the inside even telling his mother, "I don't love anybody," including her which prompts her to burst into tears. What is so striking about this story is that we never learn what exactly it was that Krebs saw in the war. It was obviously some sort of atrocity or traumatic event, but Hemingway never reveals any particulars. The fact is, we don't really even need to know what happened to Krebs. Hemingway is allowing us as the reader to create a war scenario in our head as to what happened to Krebs that made him so desensitized to the world. An interesting note is that Krebs could easily be Nick Adams. Along with the main character in the vignette that precedes this story. Either Krebs or Nick could be the solider who is trapped in a trench and in desperation calls out to God and promises to spread his world if he lives, yet when he does, never says a word about God to anybody. This could be the traumatic event that shaped Krebs life. This could be a traumatic event in Nick Adams live. This could also be a traumatic event in one of the millions of soldiers who fought in World War I. It doesn't matter who it is. This is the point I believe Hemingway is trying to make. All the soldiers, no matter where they are from, what their names or what they were like before the war, can sort of melt into the same figure following the war. People from different backgrounds are thrown into this horrific setting of death and destruction and come out as these stoic individuals shaped solely by the atrocities of war. All the soldiers are the same. The unnamed narrators, unnamed characters, Nick Adams or Krebs can all be the same person. The war makes people feel like that. It stripped people of their identity before the war. 

Winesburg, Ohio

"Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson is like Joyce's "Dubliners" in many ways, but is also very different. While it does take place in the same town throughout the cycle as "Dubliners" does and has similar themes throughout, it has one identifying aspect that "Dubliners" does not have. In "Winesburg, Ohio" one of the unifying themes (besides small town life) is the character of George Willard. When we first meet him he seems like a nice enough fellow. He is talking to the town outcast Wing Biddlebaum about the man's sad story of how he was run out of his old town. George Willard is willing to listen to him, which is what he does for most of the book. 

People seem attracted to George Willard and eager to tell him their personal life stories. As a reporter for the Winesburg Eagle it is George's job to not only report the news of the town, but to record its history. These people tell George their personal stories that you do not think would be in a newspaper. For instance, Wash Williams tells George about how his wife was cheating on him and how he know despises women. This I would hope wouldn't make it into the Winesburg Eagle, but still these people will tell George anything. It would seem that they don't want their stories in the newspaper, but they want someone to be the keeper of their tales. They want their stories to live on through George Willard who they believe will live on beyond them and will move to bigger and better things elsewhere outside Winesburg.

All these people; Kate Swift, Was Williams, Wing Biddlebaum, Doctor Parcival, Mrs. Willard, Louise Trunnion view George Willard as this almost Godlike figure. I think Anderson did this on purpose. Willard, the young handsome writer ambitious writer, is obviously based on himself. He obviously wants this projection in the story to be someone better than all the other folk in Winesburg. Only one person sees George Willard for what he truly is. That person happens to be his so-called best friend, Seth Richmond. Seth doesn't think of George as this person so much better than everyone else. In fact, at times it seems he hates him. In "The Thinker" we are able to actually see the real George Willard through the eyes of Seth Richmond. He is a petty, materialistic guy. He knows his friend loves Helen White, but tells Seth to go and tell Helen that he is in love with her and to basically set it up for him. He tells Seth that he wants to know what its like to be in love for a book he's writing and figures Helen White is the person he could be in love with. That is such a slap in the face to Seth. He actually loves this girl while George just wants to use her so he can see what's it like to be in love for a book. He could have picked anyone, but he picks his best friend's love interest. 

Although there is technically only one story that "concerns George Willard" almost all of them contain his presence either in a large role or just in passing. At times I was angered by the ways Anderson used him in this way. Why not just write a novel about George Willard? It seems Anderson wanted to do that, but at the last moment just sort of wussied out and wrote a collection of short stories instead, but kept the George Willard references in. He could have done so many things with George Willard, but he just irregularly showed up. George could have been the raconteur of the town and had a set purpose like showing up to provide commentary of what is going on or symbolizing something. There was so much promise in his function, but I think by overutilizing George Willard, Sherwood Anderson underutilized his potential.

Beside George Willard, there was one minor theme that I found cropped up here and there throughout a lot of the stories that I don't think we ever covered in class. I found in several stories this theme of parents not just being afraid of their children, but in a way idolizing them. Seth Richmond's mother is said to have an "almost unhealthy respect for the youth" which kept her "for the most part silent in his presence." Even when he has done something wrong she "found herself unable to reprove him." She is scared of her own son. This is also the case with George Willard and his mother. She is obsessed with him. She will sneak into his room when he is gone and look through his things and pray to God that he becomes successful, but not too successful and even plans on killing her husband when he scolds George. Its a very unhealthy relationship not unlike Seth and Mrs. Richmond. The same goes for Belle Carpentar whose father "was afraid of his daughter." Even Tom Hard is pushed around by his very young daughter who forces him to start calling her Tandy after an old drunk told her that should be her name. These parents in Winesburg are just paralyzed with fear by their children and will do anything to keep them happy and in their good graces. Its sort of pathetic the way some of these parents act, letting their children boss them around. But, I guess thats just how they do it in Winesburg, Ohio. 

Dubliners

After completing all 15 short stories of James Joyce's "Dubliners" I feel like I have a personal connection with the people of this city and even the city itself. For the most part, the subjects of Joyce's stories are the lower class of the city that one would probably not meet or see if they were to be visiting. He writes of the people who call Dublin home, both reluctantly or happily. These people are all very different, yet are connected together with this common thread of their place in society and (for many characters) a longing to leave Dublin all together. 

From reading this collection you get the a strong feeling of bitterness towards Dublin from Joyce. Most of the characters can only be categorized as low-lives such as Lenehan and Corley from "Two Gallants" or pathetic such as Mr. Kernan in "Grace" and Mrs. Sinico in "A Painful Case." Alcoholism is a major theme throughout the stories and many places in Dublin are constantly painted as dirty, old, dilapidated or (my personal favorite) musty. Dublin seems to give off more of a vibe of a small town where everyone knows each others business rather than the large city that it is. In all the stories it seems that everyone knows everyone and not many strangers are encountered. If someone does come upon a stranger it is a major point in the story as in "An Encounter." 

There are two stories that exemplify this longing to leave the city, however they are represented entirely differently. In "A Little Cloud" the main character, Little Chandler, goes to meet an old friend named Gallaher who he has not seen in many years. Gallaher has apparently done very well for himself since he last saw Chandler and he is obviously jealous of his old friend's good fortune as the story progresses. Gallaher is a perfect example of what many of the characters in "Dubliners" strive to become. He is wealthy since having left Dublin and has no regrets about leaving. In fact, in his conversation with Chandler he is somewhat condescending towards the city calling it "dear dirty Dublin" in a very tongue in cheek manner. 

As their conversation progresses and the two share quite a few drinks Chandler, all subtlety aside, "looked at his friend enviously." The two talk of Chandler's family and Gallaher continually states how he would never get married and if somehow he did, he would only marry for money. Chandler, who is married with a baby son really does not say much in defense of marriage. The two end their conversation with Gallaher talking about the unfortunate possibility of being with one woman the rest of your life. His final comment on the matter is, "Must get a bit stale, I should think."  Chandler goes home presumably contemplating his life with his wife and his entire life in Dublin. He goes to hold his son who is crying and his wife starts yelling at him blaming him for the baby's crying. The story ends with Chandler's eyes filling with "tears of remorse." This can be remorse for causing the baby to cry or remorse for not getting out of Dublin and making something of himself as Gallaher did. 

The next story that shows this longing to leave to Dublin is in "Eveline." However the longing to leave Dublin is made more complicated as it shows Dublin to be this place that is so hard to leave, yet so hard to stay. The girl's life in Dublin was not going well at all. Most of her family has died and her father is a drunk whom she fears will beat her. She is able to leave to go to Buenos Ayres with a sailor named Frank yet at the last moment on the docks she decides not to go and as Frank calls after her to come on the boat she just stares at him as, "Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition." 

This "paralysis" that happens to Eveline is another common theme in throughout "Dubliners." The word appears on the first page of "The Sisters" as the feeling the young narrator has at the reaction to the death of Father Flynn. Paralysis may even be used to describe what happens to the young main character in "Araby." The narrator is another character who longs for something outside of Dublin. He decides to go the exotic, Eastern bazaar known as Araby because he promised a girl he is infatuated with that he will buy her something. He arrives at the bazaar with little money in his pocket at a time when most of the shops are closing. He realizes he doesn't have enough money to buy anything and becomes angry with himself that he let greed and sexual urges towards his crush to consume his actions on the day. He is in a state of paralysis as he gazes "up into the darkness" of the bazaar. However, before this paralysis he is just another Dubliner longing for something different outside the realm of Dublin.