Journal #18

Journal 18 -“In Another Country”

1. What is the significance of the story’s title?

The significance in the story’s title “In Another Country” was that the characters were separated from the rest. The characters were officers and the people would yell at them that they weren’t wanted. The bond that they all had was that they all had injuries and these injuring separated them from the others. The characters were their own group of people because they were so different from everyone else, it was as if they were from another country.


2. Which character do you think best represents the “Hemingway hero”? Why?

The Hemmingway hero always suffers with grace and dignity. He is brave and always deals with situations by shrugging them off. At some point everyone is going to be faced with defeat. Hemingway has a code of how to attempt to establish values and meaning in an increasingly meaningless world. You accept loss with dignity and acceptance. The character that best represents this code is the major because he is suffering loss on more than one level. His wife has died (personal loss) and his hand injury is a physical loss. His injury is more significant than the narrators because he was a fencer and will never be able to fence again. This character suffers the most out of everyone and he deals with them the best way. These injuries have become his life. The major tells the narrator to never get married because the pain of the loss isn’t worth it in the end. He understands that defeat in inevitable and says to hold on to the things that are permanent and can’t be lost.

3. What can you infer about the photographs the doctor hangs up? What is the significance of the major’s reaction?

The photographs are fake because they were the first ones to use the machine. The photographs are there just a motivitation for the other soldiers.