Discussion Topic
Hemingway's depiction of the narrator's attitude towards machines in "In Another Country."
Summary:
In "In Another Country," the narrator's attitude towards machines is one of skepticism and detachment. He doubts their effectiveness in treating war injuries, reflecting a broader sense of disillusionment with modern technology and its promises.
How does Hemingway convey the narrator's suspicion about machines in "In Another Country"?
The suspicion against technology's ability to solve man's problems is a salient trait of Moderism to which Hemingway, of course, was an adherent. Therefore, in his short story, the pictures of the machines do little to inspire hope in the injured soldiers who face uncertainty, bewilderment, and lack of meaning in their lives.
As the wounded soldiers are treated with theraupetic machinery, the narrator speaks with the doctor, who assures him that his knee will be healed and he will "play football again like a champion." On another machine, a former fencer, an Italian major, has his shriveled hand strapped and a machine bounces it up and down. Even when the doctor goes to his office and returns with pictures of success stories of men regaining the use of their hands or legs, and he asks the major, "You have confidence?" the major replies, "No."
The narrator says,
We were...
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all a little detached, and there was nothing that held us together except that we met every afternoon at the hospital...we felt held together by there being something that had happened that they, the people who disliked us, did not understand.
The machines come to symbolize the false hopes and promises of the modern age. The narrator's suspicion of these machines is conveyed in his descriptions of the major's case. While the machine works upon his injured hand, the major merely looks out the window. Like the narrator, he is detached. Nevertheless, as the code hero, he goes through the motions; he adheres to the form required of him despite meaninglessness.
Why does the narrator frequently mention the machines in "In Another Country"?
The machines represent the indifference of the "war machine" to what occurs to the individual men who suffer from its horrors, as well as suggesting the dehumanizing effects of war.
As a proponent of Modernism, Hemingway held a suspicion of technology's ability to solve man's problems. In "Another Country" the pictures of the machines do little to inspire hope in the soldiers who have been injured. They feel only that they face uncertainty, alienation, and a lack of meaning in their lives. They have no confidence that any machine can return them to what they once were, either physically or psychologically. The narrator, an American in the Italian hospital comments,
We were all a little detached, and there was nothing that held us together except that we met every afternoon at the hospital....we felt held together by there being something that had happened that they, the people who disliked us, did not understand.
The indifferent machines represent the sense of alienation from which the men who do "not go to the war any more" suffer. For the major, who has injured his great fencing hand and lost his young wife, there is only a terrible sense of isolation as a sort of existential suffering. As the mechanical apparatus that the major views as worthless massages his withered hand, he merely looks out the window, detached from anything. He goes through the motions, adhering to the form required of him as a soldier and a man despite its meaninglessness and his being "...utterly unable to resign myself."