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Irony
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of “In Another Country” is primarily heavy and depressing, with a few moments of hopefulness. The heaviness of the story comes from the fact that it centers on an unnamed American World War I soldier who is rehabilitating (inefficiently) in Milan while the war rages on. Not only is the soldier not healing himself, but he watches other wounded soldiers also fail to heal, including an Italian major with a wounded hand whose young wife dies of pneumonia before the story’s end.
Hemingway’s minimalist style contributes to the depressing and alienated mood of the story. For example, rather than change his style to capture the explosive energy of a heated exchange between the narrator and the major near the end of the story, Hemingway intentionally captures the interaction in a minimalist and muted way, as seen in the following passage:
I had not learned my grammar, and [the major] said I was a stupid impossible disgrace, and he was a fool to have bothered with me. He was a small man and he sat straight up in his chair with his right hand thrust into the machine and looked straight ahead at the wall.
Here, the mood of the story stays in a depressive and lackluster key even though the major’s mood abruptly becomes more energized and full of rage (just before this moment in the scene, he was speaking to the narrator in an unbothered way). The narrator describes this moment in the same direct and disaffected way he has described most moments in the story, emotionlessly noting how the major “said I was a stupid impossible disgrace, and he was a fool to have bothered with me” and then describing the man’s movements. Hemingway’s hope here is that readers will understand just how emotionally cut off the narrator is from himself (and those around him), a direct psychological effect of surviving the war.
It is worth noting that there are some small moments in the story in which the mood becomes more hopeful, Hemingway’s way of suggesting that not all is lost for these wounded soldiers. For example, early in the story the narrator describes the pleasant experience of buying chestnuts from a woman near the hospital:
It was warm, standing in front of her charcoal fire, and the chestnuts were warm afterward in your pocket. The hospital was very old and very beautiful, and you entered through a gate and walked across a courtyard and out a gate on the other side.
Here, the narrator twice uses the word “warm” and even describes the hospital as “very beautiful.” Through small moments like this—in which the narrator demonstrates his capacity to enjoy things—Hemingway communicates that war cannot fully strip people of their humanity.
Related Themes:
