In Another Country Ernest Hemmingway

1. In Another Country Ernest Hemmingway

2. Discussion Questions

3. #1 • How does the first sentence in the story make you feel? “In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it anymore.” (Pg 580)

4. Answer # 1 This sentence is setting the tone, making the reader feel that the coldness and constant war was unavoidable.

5. #2 • Which of the story characters, if any, do you admire?

6. Answer # 2 The Major. He lost his wife, his hand is crippled, yet he’s still driving on through it all. “..Carrying himself, straight and soldierly, with tears on both his cheeks and biting his lips.” (pg 584)

7. #3 • Why does the narrator go to the hospital every afternoon?

8. Answer #3 The narrator goes to the hospital every afternoon to get his knee re-bent after his injury. “My knee did not bend and the leg dropped straight from the knee to the ankle without a calf.” (Pg 580)

9. #4 A. How did the narrator acquire his medals?

10. Answer # 4 The narrator was given his medal simply because he was American. Not because of some act of bravery. “I had been given the medals because I was an American” (Pg 582)

11. #4 B. How does the attitude of the three boys change when they find out what he had done to get them?

12. Answer # 4 They became less welcoming and held less respect for his medals. “I was a friend, but I was never really one of them.” (Pg 582)

13. #5 A. What advice did the major give the narrator toward the end of the story? ?

14. Answer #5 He tells the narrator never to marry, that he’d be putting himself up to lose everything. “A man must not marry.” (pg 583)

15. # 5 B. What happened to the Major’s wife?

16. Answer #5 His wife had died of pneumonia. “The major’s wife, who was very young and whom he had not married until he was definitely invalidated out of the war, had died of pneumonia. She had been sick only a few days. No one expected her to die.” (Pg 584)

17. # 6 A. What pictures are hanging on the wall when the major returns?

18. Answer #6 There are pictures of injuries and their outcome after using the machines. “When he came back there were large framed photographs, before and after.” (Pg 584)

19. #6 B. Why does the narrator think the pictures are deceptive?

20. Answer #6 They were deceptive because the pictures were of cured, fixed injuries that had used the machines. Yet, they were the only ones that had used them so far. “I had always understood that we were the first to use the machines.” (pg 584)

21. #7 What mood to the details of the setting convey?

22. Answer #7 It gave an image of cold, solemn. The mood is not lively, it’s rather glum and dismal. “In the fall, the war was always there but we didn’t go to it anymore. It was cold in Milan, and the dark came very early.” (pg 580)

23. #8 A. How is the narrator’s attitude toward the war different from the three boys?

24. Answer # 8 He felt that the war was glory. He couldn’t be brave like the other three and war was of just that, bravery. “..I was very much afraid to die, and often I would lay in bed at night by myself, afraid to die and wondering how I would be when I went back to the front.” (Pg. 583) “Being wounded, after all, was an accident.” (Pg 582)

25. # 8 B. How might these differences be related to their nationalities?

26. Answer #8 The war for the Europeans was a duty, not a glorified action. They fought on their own turf rather than the Americans who left for war in a grand exit of bravery. “I had been given the medals because I was an American. It had been different for them because they had done very different things to get their medals.” (pg 582) “The major, who had been a great fencer, did not believe in bravery.” (pg 583)

27. #9 What do you think is the significance in the major’s interest in grammar?

28. Answer #9 -The major was Italian, and for him this war was for his country. It showed his pride of his home he had to protect it. In correcting his grammar while he spoke in Italian, it showed that he wanted to fully respect his culture. -It was also the connection between the two men. They came together under a common language, and it was simply bonding. “One day I had said that Italian seemed a very easy language to me that I could not take a great interest in it; erything was easy to say. ‘Ah yes,’ the major said, ‘Why not take up the use of grammar?’ So we took up grammar and soon Italian was such a difficult language that I was afraid to talk to him until I had my grammar right in my mind.” (Pg 583)

29. # 10 In this story the machines symbolize the false hopes and promises of modern age. What details convey the symbolic meaning of the machines.

30. Answer # 10 “The doctor came up to the machine where I was sitting and said: ' What did you like best to do before the war? Did you practice a sport?’ I said:' Yes, football.’ ‘Good,’ He said, ‘You will be able to play better than ever.’” (pg 580) It promised the narrator to be able to be able to play football again, the major to have an uncrippled hand, and in it all they were still the first ones to use it. They were promised that the new technology would help them, make them better once again.

31. #11 Considering that the major waiting until he was invalided out of the war to marry his wife, what is ironic about her death?

32. Answer #11 The irony is that he went to war, to fight, where it’s possible for him to die, yet she died from pneumonia at a young age not expecting to die. It was that he was the one in known danger, she wasn’t. “She had been sick only a few days. No one expected her to die.” (Pg 584)

33. #12 Gertrude Stein wrote, “You are all a lost generation.” This epigraph has come to stand for young people of Hemingway’s time. In what way are the young men in this story “lost” ?

34. Answer #12 The lost generation was the youth of the time. These men were lost because they fought without morals, without the old dignity that the people had in the old days. They’ve strayed from the old fashioned structured way to fight and judge. “The three with the medals were like hunting-hawks.” (pg 583)

35. #13 Explain the two meanings of the title of the story.

36. Answer # 13 The title is “In Another Country” It could simply mean, that this American soldier was in another country, Milan, Italy. It could also mean that it was a change in culture. He was sent there to fight, he was given a medal for simply being American and he was being coached on his Italian. He wasn’t quite accepted by the three boys who had fought for their country, and he had a complete different look on the war. He was in another country, both physically and culturally.

37. #14 World War 1 left many people feeling disillusioned because it caused the death of thousands of people, though it seemed to have no purpose. How does this story reflect this sense of disillusionment? Disillusionment (n); a freeing or a being freed from illusion or conviction; disenchantment. [dictionary.reference.com]

38. Answer #14 This story reflects disillusionment in a way that, people from America were being sent off to a war not on our own turf and dying for a war we didn’t see. Life went on, yet people died across sees.