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Explanation and Analysis:
“In Another Country” is a short story belonging to the modernist literary genre. Hemingway—like other writers in what came to be known as “the lost generation”—felt that traditional literary techniques could not adequately capture the level of despair, alienation, and loss that people across the globe were feeling in the early 20th century (due to industrialization, world wars, and more), and thus began to experiment with writing style, narrative structure, and themes. This new literary sensibility came to be known as modernism.
In “In Another Country,” Hemingway utilizes several modernist literary techniques. For example, his prose style is quite minimalist, as seen in his use of simple, unadorned language and short sentences. This is Hemingway’s way of communicating how detached and emotionally traumatized the narrator is, as a result of serving in World War I. This story is also modernist in terms of its structure—while traditional literature typically features protagonists experiencing some sort of growth or change over the course of a story, the narrator here ends the story much as he begins it, isolated and physically and psychologically wounded. The story ends on just as hopeless a note as it begins.
It is notable that this story likely contains some autobiographical elements and could thus also be considered a work of “autofiction.” Hemingway was, like the unnamed narrator, wounded in World War I and rehabilitated at a hospital in Milan. It is entirely possible that he knew firsthand what it was like to use the ineffective rehabilitation machines that appear in the story.
Related Themes:
