In Another Country Themes

Isolation

As a wounded American officer receiving medical treatment in Italy during World War I, the unnamed narrator of "In Another Country” is an outsider in terms of his nationality, class, and wartime experience. Despite developing a certain kinship with other wounded Italian soldiers receiving treatment in the same hospital, the narrator—widely accepted to be Hemingway’s autobiographical alter ego Nick Adams—remains deeply isolated from the people and world surrounding him. Hemingway explores the nature of belonging…

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Loss, War, and Trauma

Set on the side-lines of World War I, many of the characters in “In Another Country” are recovering from both physical and mental injuries sustained amid the horrors of the battlefield. But while undergoing a sort of physical therapy treatment in Milan, the narrator discovers that emotional trauma, too, persists long after the fighting has ended, and that loss is an inevitability not experienced solely within the arena of warfare. The sudden death of the…

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Courage

“In Another Country” takes place on the fringes of World War I, during which some of the characters earned medals for bravery. The narrator feels insecure about his own courage, however, as it has largely been untested; his medals were awarded for being wounded and “an American,” and he is not accepted by those who earned theirs for more daring feats. Though he draws a line between those he sees as bold “hunting-hawks” and those…

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