internationally is a story of ironies essay

In the story In Another Country, one of Hemingway’s greatest themes is the implausibility of war, focusing on the fate of the soldiers in the aftermath of war, when they experience the tragedies and futility of their lives. In fact , the storyplot offers a rethinking of war-related ideas and beliefs such as braveness, heroism, patriotism, camaraderie, etc . and a tool used to communicate contrasting or unconventional opinions is paradox. For example , irony lies in the truth that the soldiers have pains in the very parts of the body which make what they are, the medals can be meaningless , nor have true value, as well as the Cova young ladies are considered the the majority of patriotic people of all.

Those ironies seem to disclose the author’s anti-war frame of mind.

First, the characters incongruously receive wounds in the body parts that make all of them what they are. A noble guy now turns into a noseless number, a footballer has a ruined knee, and a fencer a shriveled hand.

It seems as if the conflict has deliberately chosen to deceive them from the things giving their lives meanings and essence. To put it briefly, they are not their selves any more. To help make the ironies more tragic, the boy who lost his nose experienced his confront rebuilt, yet ‘they can never find the nose exactly right, ‘ and the major ” the fencing champion ” has no confidence in the treatment. Although ‘to drop is human’, a soldier cannot steer clear of having to ‘place himself capable to lose’. The soldiers’ losses cannot be reclaimed and are an agonizing blow to their bravery.

The medals are usually images of irony. Although supposed to be honours for actions of bravery and thus something that hold the soldiers together, that will make them ‘friends against outsiders’, the medals have become triggers for injustice and discrimination. In fact , the American soldier received his medals just because he is American, without undertaking anything to get them. Knowing this, the others’ soldiers improved their frame of mind towards him. The American is conscious that he’s never really one of them, would never have done brave such things as the other three, and is also never a hunting hawk like all of them. This understanding causes the American to drift apart from the other soldiers and their companionship suffers from this kind of discrimination and despise.

One other bitter paradox comes from the simple fact that the folks who appreciate the military most are not really the decent citizens of Milan but the cafe girls at the Cova. Needless to say, going to war and sacrificing his youth, long term, career, and in many cases his life, a soldier expects to become recognized and loved by non-soldier people. Nevertheless , the people in Milan hate them and yell in them if they pass by. However, the lowly girls on the Cova like and everyone should be open them, to the point the I-narrator ‘found that the most devoted people in Italy had been the cafe girls’ and he feels ‘they are still patriotic. ‘ It is not very clear whether the cafe girls showing interest in the soldiers originates from real admiration or just a quick way to show their hospitality nevertheless the girls’ patterns may question what makes patriotism and emphasize the perception of seclusion experienced by soldiers.

The three images of irony talked about above, although not exhaustive, evidence the implausibility of war and the cruel fortune of the military after battle. We have the impression that the soldiers are betrayed by the war, which usually inflicts the kinds of wounds that are meant to destroy them, to deceive them of the very meaning of their existence, by the medals, which will widen the gap among fellow soldiers rather than unite them, and by the people, who also, in return for the soldiers’ sacrifice, pay associated with ingratitude and hate. Hemingway’s anti-war attitude seems to highlight the fact that war is usually inglorious and life is unfair.

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