In this blog post, I will focus on Hemingway’s 1927 short story collection ‘Men Without Women’ to explain why this collection should be read in its original form and how each story fits into the overall theme.
Work Analysis
The book I reviewed this time is ‘Men Without Women’, a collection of fourteen short stories that Hemingway published as a standalone volume on October 14, 1927. It is a very important collection, situated between Hemingway’s first short story collection, ‘In Our Time’ (1924), and his third and final collection, ‘Winner Take Nothing’ (1933). Hemingway’s short stories have been compiled into various anthologies, and several volumes are currently available on the domestic publishing market. I am writing this commentary for readers who might wonder whether another Hemingway short story collection is really necessary given this situation. What sets this translation apart is that it does not consist of stories arbitrarily selected and compiled by the translator from among Hemingway’s many short stories, but rather translates all fourteen stories from ‘Men Without Women’, originally published in 1927, exactly as they appear in the original. This approach was taken because reading the stories in the exact order they appear in the collection—that is, as a short story collection—is crucial and serves as the surest path to understanding Hemingway’s literature. Therefore, the primary purpose of this commentary is to explain why reading the collection in its original form is important. Accordingly, this essay begins by describing Hemingway’s circumstances in the 1920s, examines how the title ‘Men Without Women’ runs through all fourteen stories, provides a brief analysis of each story, and concludes by drawing a final conclusion based on these elements.
Hemingway in the 1920s
Hemingway graduated with honors from Oak Park High School in the western part of Chicago, Illinois, and was more than capable of attending college; however, wishing to enter the workforce early, he moved to Kansas City in 1917 and became a reporter for the daily newspaper ‘The Star’. It is said that his desire to leave home early stemmed from conflict with his mother. He found family life difficult due to the tension between his overbearing mother and his timid father; he believed his mother had developed character flaws—becoming a cold and cruel woman—because she had lost her own mother (his maternal grandmother) at a young age and, later in life, saw her career as a musician cut short. He also blamed his mother for his father’s suicide. In Toronto, at the urging of his fellow reporter Ted Brumback, he decided to enlist in World War I. After working at ‘The Star’ for about seven months, he resigned and joined the war effort in 1918 as a Red Cross civilian worker attached to the Italian Army. While serving in Italy, he was wounded by artillery fire and admitted to a military hospital in Milan; however, after a three-month stay, he was discharged and assigned to an Italian infantry unit until the armistice was signed in November. He returned home in 1919 and, for the next year, ignored his parents’ urging that he attend college, instead leading a life of idleness and leisure. This period of her life is vividly depicted in her short story “The Soldier’s Home.”
In 1920, she went to Toronto, Canada, and became a newspaper reporter, but soon returned to the United States. She later became the editor of a Chicago-based magazine and associated with the artists of the Chicago Group, who were bringing a new literary movement (primarily New Criticism) to the city. In September 1921, he married Hadley Richardson and lived in Toronto before moving to Europe as the European correspondent for Toronto’s ‘Star Weekly’. Thus began his Paris period, which lasted approximately two years from 1922 to 1924. He became acquainted with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce, from whom he received instruction in modernist literature. While socializing with fellow American writers during this time, Hemingway discovered that they were all graduates of prestigious universities on the East Coast. From then on, he offered a rather far-fetched excuse, claiming that he had not attended college because his mother, Grace, had saved money to build a cottage across the lake.
During this time, he kept his work as a journalist to a minimum and traveled extensively throughout continental Europe, becoming particularly enthusiastic about Spanish bullfighting. He was also a great fan of boxing. He compiled the fourteen short stories he had published during this period into a collection titled ‘In Our Time’, which was published in 1924. In 1926, he published ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and divorced his first wife, Hadley Richardson. The following year, in 1927, he remarried Pauline Pfeiffer, a Paris correspondent and fashion critic for ‘Vogue’. On December 6, 1928, his father, Clarence Hemingway, committed suicide by shooting himself behind the ear with a revolver on the second floor of their home in Oak Park. He was 57 years old at the time of his death. In 1929, he published the novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’.
Hemingway’s 1920s can be summarized as follows: his strained relationship with his mother, Grace, during his formative years; his struggle with post-war trauma after serving in World War I; his passion for bullfighting, fishing, hunting, and boxing; his conflict with his first wife, Hadley, which led to their divorce and his remarriage to Piper; and his father’s tragic suicide.
‘Men Without Women’
Since the title of this short story collection is ‘Men Without Women’, it would be helpful to first understand Hemingway’s relationships with women before discussing the theme. While serving on the Italian front, Hemingway was wounded and sent to a field hospital, where he developed feelings for Agnes von Krosky, a nurse seven years his senior; however, the relationship did not progress further after she severed ties with him. Later, in 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, who was eight years his senior, and moved to Paris, where he worked as a journalist while relying on his wife’s inheritance ($3,000 a year) to pursue his literary studies. Hadley had suffered a back injury as a child that confined her to the house, and it is said she herself had a childlike disposition. He had one son with Hadley. However, growing tired of Hadley—who had gained weight and become a stay-at-home mother—and eager to display his macho streak, Hemingway began an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer. When Hadley discovered the truth, they eventually divorced, and he remarried Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer, who was four years his senior, was also a wealthy woman; she served as the model for the wealthy woman in the short story “ The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” He had two sons with Piper, but after her second C-section, doctors warned that another pregnancy would be dangerous for her, so he was unable to continue having sex with Pauline. This was because she no longer wanted to become pregnant. Consequently, from 1932 to 1936, Hemingway had an affair with a woman named Jane Mason behind Piper’s back. In February 1937, after ending his relationship with Mason, he traveled to Spain as a correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance. There, he met Martha Gellhorn, a female writer and correspondent for ‘Collier’s’, and the two fell deeply in love.
In 1940, he published ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and dedicated the novel to Martha; that same year, he divorced Pauline Piper and married Martha Gellhorn for the third time. Hemingway already had three sons and hoped to have a daughter, but the independent Martha Gellhorn, who dreamed of becoming a writer, did not want children and felt a strong aversion toward Hemingway, who displayed macho tendencies and tried to suppress his wife. For these reasons, conflict began to arise between them. Martha eventually divorced Hemingway in December 1945. The following February, Hemingway married his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, who would be present at his deathbed. Mary had become close friends with Hemingway while working at the London bureau of ‘Time’ magazine. In 1948, the Hemingways visited Italy to tour the battlefields where Hemingway had been wounded during World War I, and in Venice, they met 18-year-old Adriana Ivancic. This young woman became the model for the heroine in ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. Although Adriana was Hemingway’s lover, the two were not in a secret relationship. Adriana’s mother secretly hoped that Hemingway would divorce Mary Welsh and marry Adriana, but Hemingway, who was 50 at the time, hesitated to take a fifth wife and did not want to take the risk, especially since Mary Welsh had been such a dutiful wife. Mary was aware of her husband’s infidelity, but knowing full well how the three women before her had parted ways with Hemingway, she resolved not to follow in their footsteps and told Hemingway:
“Ernest, if you don’t like me, just tell me so. Then I’ll leave you right away. The way you treated your first three wives—telling them you loved them with your words while making them lose all affection for you through your actions, until you drove them away—that won’t work with me.” (Quoted from Mary Hemingway’s ‘How It Was’)
Looking at Hemingway’s romantic history with women in this light, he was by no means an ideal husband. He viewed women as targets to be attacked, as subjects who must never be empowered, and as objects that must be conquered. Some critics even accused Hemingway of viewing women solely as objects of sexual intercourse. Hemingway has consistently faced suspicion that he was a closeted homosexual due to his aggressive macho mentality, favoritism toward male colleagues, intermittent erectile dysfunction, sexual grandstanding, and hostility toward those with sexual deviance. Let’s examine how the author’s personal background connects to the theme of “Men Without Women” through each of his works.
Commentary on Each Short Story
Before reading Hemingway’s short stories, it is very helpful to keep the following three points in mind.
First, the iceberg theory. He said, “An iceberg gains its majesty because only one-eighth of it is visible above the water’s surface, while the rest is submerged; similarly, even if a novelist omits a significant portion of what he knows well from his work, the reader interprets the omitted parts as if they had been explicitly stated.” Therefore, deciphering these omitted parts becomes the first task in reading Hemingway.
Second is the unity of emotion and scenery. This refers to the alignment between a person’s emotions and the state of the landscape; for example, a woman standing on a train station platform holding an umbrella on a rainy day conveys “longing,” while the sound of cicadas chirping so loudly on a sweltering summer day that it seems the entire valley is about to vanish conveys a “clinging to life,” and gazing at the mountains across the river and thinking they resemble a white elephant implies an “irrational fantasy.”
Third is the effect of “endless layers” (重重無盡). This is originally a Buddhist term, also known as Indra’s Net. Indra’s (the guardian deity of the Tushita Heaven) palace is constructed of a net, and at each junction of the net hangs a beautiful bead, with the beads reflecting one another. The beads are so luminous that the shadows of many beads are projected onto a single bead, and the same is true of the other beads. In this way, the reflection of a single bead is endlessly projected onto the other beads, and the reflections of each bead illuminate one another, enhancing the beauty of the palace. Applying this metaphor to this collection of short stories yields the following: “ The theme of “Men Without Women” is the candle placed in the center of a room containing fourteen mirrors. The candle, reflected in all those mirrors, appears in different colors and intensities, yet the source of that light is ultimately one. Let us now examine how the fourteen short stories illuminate one another.
“The Man Who Refuses to Be Defeated”
This story deals with the fear and fascination of death, one of the most central themes in Hemingway’s literature. Manuel, a bullfighter, feels fear but believes he must not shy away from the fight with the bull—a conviction that ultimately leads to his own destruction. Reading this story brings to mind that famous line from Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’:
“Man is not born to be defeated. A man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated.”
However, the bullfighter Manuel does not face the bull without any fear. Before entering the third round, he confronts the bloodied, struggling bull despite feeling fear. Hemingway referred to this courage in the face of adversity as “grace under pressure,” a phrase that President John F. Kennedy is said to have particularly favored. In this novel, we can discern Hemingway’s obsession with death, which appears to be linked to his postwar trauma. Just as a murderer inevitably returns to the scene of the crime, a person suffering from post-war trauma constantly relives in their memory the moments when they nearly died on the battlefield. The “I” in ‘Across the Country’ is portrayed as someone who fears death. And after the war ends, “I” (or Hemingway) becomes extremely fascinated by death, driven by a desire to overcompensate for that cowardice. This fascination with—or resignation to—death can be found throughout ‘Men Without Women’. Viewed in this light, bullfighting symbolizes a situation that brings about death. Furthermore, the death of the bullfighter Manuel serves as a preview of Hemingway’s entire life. Hemingway, who maintained a consistently macho image throughout his life—through boxing, military service, bullfighting, hunting, fishing, and his romantic escapades—displayed an almost obsessive fixation on violence and death. Having witnessed death on the battlefield in his youth and resolved to confront it, Hemingway became even more fixated on the issue following his father’s suicide, spending his entire life in a struggle against death. Eventually, in his final years, when he found himself driven into a situation from which he could not escape death, he chose death himself. This is why the image of Hemingway in his final years overlaps with the death of the bullfighter Manuel.
“In Another Country”
The title of this novel is taken from Christopher Marlowe’s play ‘The Jew of Malta’ and was used by T. S. Eliot as an epigraph in his poem “Portrait of a Lady.”
“You committed adultery. But that happened in another country. Besides, the woman is dead.”
In this work, the adultery referred to in this epigraph symbolizes the wrongdoing of taking a human life. In reality, in another country (Italy), a war is raging, and those who kill people are recognized as brave soldiers and receive medals. “I” also received a medal, but unlike the other three men, I did not earn it by killing anyone; rather, I received it because I was accidentally wounded—and because I was an American. In other words, I appear to be a brave soldier on the surface, but in reality, I am not. The author implies this in the following sentence:
“Sometimes (…) I imagined myself actually carrying out the actions that had earned them their medals. But as I walked home in the middle of the night through the cold wind along an empty street where all the stores were closed, trying to stay close to the streetlights, I knew I could never do such a thing. I was too afraid of dying. (…) The three men with medals were a kind of hunting falcon. I was not a falcon.”
The dead of night, the cold wind, the closed shops, and the deserted street symbolize war (or death), and “sticking close to the streetlight” is a perfect fusion of scene and mood that vividly illustrates my psychological state of trying to flee from that war. This contrast between light and darkness, death and life, is further extended to distinguish between falcons and humans, those who are not falcons—those who do not fear killing and those who fear not only killing but also their own death. Furthermore, the Major’s Italian grammar is, in fact, a metaphor for the proper grammar of life. In the midst of war, one can never speak strictly by the rules of grammar if one is to act in a way that upholds human decency. The Major also does not believe in the soldiers’ acts of bravery—that is, he claims such acts do not conform to the rules. When the Major arrives at the hospital and sits in the treatment chair, he stares straight at the wall. This wall appears three times, symbolizing a desperate situation. The image of this wall is repeated again in ‘The Killers’. The Major’s shriveled hand is also a symbol of post-war trauma. Although there are photographs showing his condition before and after treatment, these are merely theoretical; the Major’s post-war trauma is never truly cured.
Finally, the Major tells “I” not to get married. Marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman, but in this comfortless world—a world where no one knows what the future holds, a desperate situation where war rages and people die indiscriminately—such a union cannot be guaranteed. This anxiety about the future is rooted in a premonition that most of what lies ahead will be misfortune, and the Major himself does not feel capable of bearing that misfortune. He is consumed by the thought that he must overcome that misfortune as if it were something new every day; otherwise, an even greater misfortune might strike and end his life in an instant. The Major’s sense of futility is clearly revealed in his statement after his wife’s death: “I simply cannot accept this.” Like the Major, the narrator—“I”—who is not a member of the military, also shares this sentiment. This theme from “In Another Country” is elaborately revisited in “Now I’m Going to Lie Down,” the very last story in this collection.
“A Mountain Like a White Elephant”
Composed primarily of dialogue, this story appears to have been influenced by Rudyard Kipling’s short story “Mrs. Bathurst,” an author whom Hemingway greatly admired. For instance, the technique of having characters speak obliquely about key events, thereby prompting readers to speculate, is characteristic of this influence. The key term in this short story is “white elephant.” Looking up this term in a dictionary reveals the following three definitions: First, a white elephant. Second, derived from an ancient tale in which a Siamese king bestowed a white elephant upon a disfavored courtier to humiliate him—it refers to a possession that is costly to maintain yet serves no useful purpose, i.e., a burden that is difficult to dispose of. Third, (in the U.S.) an item that is unnecessary to its owner but valuable to others, as in the phrase “a white elephant sale.” Applying this meaning, the “white elephant” can be interpreted as the cosmetic surgery the woman does not want. However, the elephant can also be interpreted in another way. The female protagonist in the story knows that the mountain does not resemble an elephant. Yet, to still think of it as an elephant is an irrational attitude. Furthermore, in the sentence that appears toward the end of the work—“They are each waiting for the train with an appropriate attitude”—the original word corresponding to “appropriate” is “reasonably.” This implies that the act of waiting for the approaching train—in other words, the attitude of accepting change—is rational. In this context, the train can be interpreted as a symbol of rationality and acceptance of reality. Ultimately, the contrast between the stationary mountain and the constantly moving train expands symbolically. The mountain, as a fixed entity, represents women or ideals, while the train, as a moving entity, signifies men and reality. In this way, the contrast between stillness and movement, and between irrationality and rationality, forms a central tension that runs throughout the work, prompting readers to reflect more deeply on the characters’ choices and their significance.
“Before the old monk began Zen meditation thirty years ago, when he looked at a mountain, it was a blue mountain; when he looked at a river, it was green water. Then, after meeting his Zen master and attaining enlightenment, he realized that the mountain was not a mountain, and the river was not a river. But now that he has truly attained enlightenment, he realizes that, just as before, the mountain is that mountain, and the river is that river.”
While this koan speaks of the mysterious harmony between mountains and rivers, the man and woman in ‘The White Elephant’ fail to achieve such harmony between the sexes and are deeply at odds. This work is a prime example of “Men Without Women.” The female protagonist, who has not received the man’s love (though he continues to say he loves her), gazes at the distant white elephant (a fantasy), evoking the following verse from Psalm 121:
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?”
And the heroine, who pleads with the man to please, please, please shut up, brings to mind this passage from Psalm 120:
“O Lord, save my life from lying lips and a deceitful tongue. Deceitful tongue, what will you receive? What more will you receive?”
This mouth reappears as an important motif in ‘An Alpine Pastoral’.
‘The Killers’
This novel tells the story of Ole Andersen, a boxer who agreed to throw a high-stakes boxing match but ended up winning and collecting the prize money. Andersen is Swedish and a boxer; this background appears to be borrowed from Stephen Crane’s short story “The Blue Hotel” (in fact, Hemingway spoke highly of Crane’s “The Blue Hotel”). In “The Blue Hotel,” the protagonist is also Swedish and is murdered during a fight. The story of winning a fight that was supposed to be thrown is described in detail in another work, “Fifty Thousand Dollars.” When Nick visits Ole at the boarding house, the phrase “staring at the wall” appears four times. This illustrates just how desperate Ole’s situation is. Yet he refuses to leave that room. He no longer tries to flee from the killers (“a vaudeville troupe”). This vaudeville troupe is identical to the burlesque show featured in “The Chase.” In other words, the one pursuing Ole and the one pursuing William Campbell are the same person, event, or force. Vaudeville and burlesque are vulgar shows that mix a variety of acts—comedy, dance, song, striptease, and the like—and symbolize the myriad vulgar, corrupt, and evil events that occur in the human world. Why Ole does not try to escape is explained in detail in “The Chase,” but to summarize here: no matter how fast Campbell or Ole run, they cannot outrun “death”—which seeks to kill them—or the burlesque show (that is, the futility of life). This brings to mind the story of Atalanta’s race.
Atalanta, the princess of Arcadia, was such a beautiful woman that many men sought her hand in marriage. The condition for winning her was to run a race against her and beat her; if a man lost the race, he would be put to death. However, there was no man in the world who could run faster than she could. Here, the brave man Hippomenes challenges her, knowing full well that he will die. Ole Andersen, like Hippomenes, took on the challenge but was unable to handle the consequences. The three stages—response to the challenge, retreat, and corruption—are symbolized through the characters. In ‘The Killers’, the attitudes of Sam, the chef, and Nick toward death correspond to the first two stages. Sam tries to stay completely uninvolved in Ole’s affairs. However, when Nick suggests they warn Ole so he can escape death, Sam says this:
“Kids always know exactly what they want to do.”
This novel features, simultaneously, a character who has not yet fallen (Nick), one who is halfway fallen (Sam), and one who has fallen completely (Ole), thereby shedding a more multidimensional light on the meaning of corruption. Murder (death) terrifies people, but at the same time, it compels them to fight back. Since ancient times, the human response to crisis has been one of two things: fight or flight. “The Man Who Refuses to Lose” is a man who adopts the former response. “The Killers” is easier to understand when read alongside the other three stories in the collection: “$50,000,” “The Chase,” and “The Man Who Refuses to Lose.” Hemingway never uses a single word carelessly in his works. For example, when the killers enter the diner, they exchange the following banter.
“This is a very hot town,” said one of the men. “What’s the name of this town?”
The original word for “hot” is “hot,” and if you look it up in the dictionary, you’ll find the definition “to get hot” (meaning to close in on a hunting target), while “summit” is defined as the peak, and an example sentence given is “the summit of gloominess.” In other words, even the casual banter between the two killers foreshadows the immense crisis that is about to unfold. Viewed this way, Hemingway’s short stories must be read with close attention to every single word.
“What Is Your Country Saying to You?”
This title is taken from a patriotic slogan by Gabriele D’Annunzio, an Italian poet and ardent fascist. In April 1927, Hemingway traveled with the newspaper reporter Guy Hickok for ten days to Italy—the country of the fascist Mussolini—in the reporter’s old Ford. Since the Shanghai Incident (April 12, 1927) is mentioned in the work, we can roughly estimate the duration of the trip. He wrote up this travelogue and published it in ‘The New Republic’ (May 18, 1927). Therefore, although this story was originally published as nonfiction, Hemingway later included it in a collection of short stories. Why did he include a nonfiction piece in a short story collection? This raises questions, and I believe the following three scenes are related to ‘Men Without Women’. The first scene features a young Italian man traveling alone on a long journey. The second scene is a conversation between the narrator and a waitress at a restaurant in La Spezia. And the final scene is a man and a woman that “I” witness at a restaurant on the outskirts of Genoa. Since Hemingway skillfully employs the technique of blending narrative and scene in his short stories, the image of this young man traveling alone is anything but ordinary. Furthermore, the conversation with the waitress contains hints of homosexuality and a phobia of women (and sexual intercourse).
The banana and banana peel mentioned here symbolize sexual intercourse and condoms, respectively. The third scene depicts a relationship between a man and a woman that is not going well. The passage reads as follows:
“At one end of the restaurant sat a man and a woman. The man was middle-aged, and the woman was young and dressed in black. Throughout the meal, she exhaled into the cold, damp air. Seeing this, the man shook his head. They ate in silence, and the man held her hand under the table. The woman, who was strikingly beautiful, looked very sad. Next to them was a suitcase.”
This passage perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the short story “The Mountain Like a White Elephant.” The traveling couple had ultimately undergone an abortion, which is likely why the woman was wearing black instead of mourning clothes. It is presumed that Hemingway drew inspiration from this scene to write the “White Elephant” story, which depicts the couple’s psychological state prior to the abortion. The fact that “A Mountain Like a White Elephant” was published in the August 1927 issue of ‘Transition’ further supports this speculation.
“$50,000”
There are three moments when a person transforms from a realist into an artist: when suffering a great misfortune, when making a grave mistake, and when recovering from a serious illness. Jack, the protagonist who nearly suffered the great misfortune of losing $50,000 after falling victim to his opponent’s deception in a game he thought he could win just by letting the other player win a little, truly became an artist. Here, an “artist” can be understood as someone who embodies “grace under pressure.” This novel reveals the true nature of the burlesque show that corrupts people. Although Jack did win the money, he would ultimately have ended up being hunted down, just like Ole Andersen from ‘The Killers’. Where enormous sums of money are at stake, powerful forces prey on the lives of the powerless. This cat-and-mouse dynamic closely resembles the story found in “The Trees of the Mountain” from the “Outer Chapters” of the ‘Zhuangzi’. Zhuang Zhou was wandering through the forest with his bow when he spotted a magpie flying by. He chased after it to catch it, but upon closer inspection, he saw a cicada perched in the cool shade of a tree, so absorbed in its surroundings that it had forgotten its own body. Then a mantis, in turn, was lurking to catch the cicada, having forgotten its own existence. The magpie sought to catch the mantis, and Zhuangzi sought to catch the magpie, both having forgotten their own existence. At that moment, Zhuangzi suddenly came to his senses, dropped his arrow, and left the forest.
The narrator of this story is “I,” Jack’s training instructor, who believes that Jack—despite being double-crossed—did not collapse but held out until the end because of money. Thus, the story somewhat exaggerates Jack’s financial stinginess: he gives the training assistant a very meager tip, and even when staying at a hotel, he refuses to tip the porter. However, Hemingway is more interested in the protagonist’s paradoxical situation. This paradox lies in the fact that although Jack has decided to deliberately let his opponent win, he must actually summon tremendous courage just to maintain that pretense. In other words, the script—which calls for a “cowardly” act—is turned on its head into a situation where he must, in fact, perform the actions of a true “hero.” If you read this story at face value, it’s easy to think of it as the story of a man who barely held on for the sake of money, but in reality, this paradox is cleverly concealed, revealing that Hemingway is playing a subtle double game with the reader. This double game is repeated in the short story “A Trivial Story.”
Hemingway recreates the war scenario—where if you cannot kill, you must be killed—in bullfighting and boxing. He also applied this concept to his relationships with women. In “The Way You’ll Never Follow,” included in his third collection of short stories, he states that a person is either a dominator or a dominated—there is no middle ground. Such a world, obsessed solely with winning, is one where lies, deception, and violence run rampant—a world quite different from that of trout fishing, where the fish and the angler engage in an honest contest. Hemingway likens this human world to “a great river with two hearts (one pure, one corrupt),” and understanding this image helps us better comprehend “Now I Lie Here,” the final story in this collection.
“A Simple Question”
Hemingway was generally known for his hostility toward gay people. Why, then, did Hemingway—who seemed to have absolutely no connection to homosexuality—write a story with such a theme? And at the very end, the Major, doubting Private Pinin’s passive refusal or claims of sexual innocence, begins to suspect that his subordinate might have deceived him. This attitude of suspicion evokes the atmosphere in Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story “A Night’s Lodging,” where the thief-poet François Cuvier doubts the intentions of the lord who took him in for the night. In any case, the key point of this sensitive novel is the fact that the Major felt a sense of relief at Pinin’s refusal. This brings to mind the phrase “grace under pressure,” which Hemingway is said to have used most often. He overcame the intense pressure of homosexuality with the grace of a man determined to protect a young man. However, by doubting the young man’s response, the Major erases that very grace for himself. The narrative then turns to the complexity of military life—suggesting that it easily corrupts people. Serving as a commander’s orderly during wartime means not being sent to the front lines, so at the very least, one does not lose one’s life. In the complex world of military life—where death is feared but cowardice is forbidden—in order to maintain that orderly position while preserving a modicum of honor, one must sometimes comply even with unreasonable demands from the Major. Yet Pinin refuses to do so. This novel conveys the message that while military life has this corrupting aspect, there are also those who stand up against it. The theme of homosexuality appears in one story from Hemingway’s first short story collection and is addressed in two stories from his third collection. Considering the circumstances under which Hemingway titled this collection (see the Hemingway Chronology), one might wonder if homosexuality serves as an “escape strategy” for men without women. Hemingway’s critics have long suspected that he was a closeted homosexual—arguing that the more secretly homosexual a person is, the less tolerant they are of homosexuality in others—and have speculated that his overly macho image might be a smokescreen designed to overcompensate for that fact. If we shine the light of homosexuality on these fourteen short stories, we can discover another layer of depth.
“Ten Indians”
On the Fourth of July, after attending a baseball game, Nick encounters nine drunken Indians on his way home in Joe Garner’s wagon. Upon returning home, his father tells him that Prudy, an Indian woman, has betrayed him. Thus, ten Indians appear in this story. The first nine are foolish, drunken Native Americans celebrating the white people’s Independence Day (July 4th)—a holiday they have little reason to be happy about—while the remaining Native American (a woman) is a foolish (and, in Nick’s eyes, depraved) Native American who betrayed the man who loved her passionately. The novel skillfully depicts the psychology of a man betrayed by a woman for the first time, setting it against a backdrop of natural scenery. In particular, the very last sentence of the novel perfectly resonates with Nick’s psychological state.
“Nick woke up in the middle of the night and, after listening to the wind rustling through the pine trees outside the cabin and the waves lapping against the lakeshore, fell back asleep. In the morning, a strong wind was blowing, and the waves were crashing high against the shore.”
Since this collection of short stories frequently features such descriptions that blend scenery and emotion, readers should interpret these passages by connecting them to the atmosphere of the characters or events whenever they encounter them.
“A Canary for One”
The most important symbol in this story is the canary. The original title is “A Canary for One,” and if you look up the English word “one” in a dictionary, you’ll find the following definition:
“A person or thing. In the phrase ‘As fast as one can,’ ‘one’ refers to the subject—such as I, you, or she.”
Based on the title alone, we can see that the canary symbolizes not only the daughter but also various other people. First, the American woman described by the narrator “I” is a canary trapped within her own prejudices and stubbornness (a form of mockery). A prime example of this prejudice is the belief that an American woman must marry an American man to live well. That canary continues to sing the same tune even as time passes. The tailor shop where she orders clothes from Paris, the desolate landscape along the railroad tracks leading from Palermo to Paris, and the identical appearance of the houses near the Paris train station are all examples of this unchanging harmony between scene and atmosphere. The woman’s daughter, too—who has her clothes tailored at the same Parisian shop—is a canary trapped within her mother’s mockery. A literal translation of the original title would be something like “Everyone’s Canary,” but I translated it as “A Canary for My Daughter” because it seems to best convey the core atmosphere of the work. However, a surprising twist occurs at the very end. The narrator, “I,” who coldly observes the American woman, appears to be a very rational person, but in reality, “I” am also trapped by a certain prejudice (which is not explicitly stated in the text), leading to conflict with my wife and, consequently, my return to Paris to live apart from her. This completely shatters the American woman’s prejudice that Americans must marry other Americans to live happily. The train cars shattered in the collision at the Paris station serve as a perfect fusion of scene and meaning, illustrating the ruined life of this woman, who has a husband and a daughter. Viewed in this light, the symbol of the canary operates universally within this work, implying that all people are beings trapped by their own mockery or prejudice. It is truly remarkable that such a universal insight can be conveyed in a short piece of just 30 pages. It is a very beautiful work that skillfully combines the iceberg theory with the principle of “layers upon layers.”
“Alpine Pastoral”
A man and woman without love first kill each other with their eyes, then with their gestures, and finally by insulting each other with their tongues (mouths). In “The Mountain Like a White Elephant,” the woman pleads with the man, “Please, please, please, just shut your mouth.” In this story, too, that mouth is the problem. We do not know why the mountain farmer hated his wife’s mouth so much. We can surmise that his wife may have attacked him because his words and actions did not match. The farmer said he loved his wife with his mouth, but his actions showed he did not love her at all—and it was likely the same during her lifetime. Just like the man in “The Mountain Like a White Elephant.”
In this story, Hemingway conveys his message through the natural landscape. For instance, his intent is evident in the following sentence:
“We were all sick of the sun. No one could escape it. (…) It was nice to get a tan, but the sun made you terribly tired. You couldn’t rest in the sun.”
By describing the immense power of nature through the sunlight, he implies that the barbarity committed in the Alps is also part of such a natural phenomenon. However, even though the man committed such a violent act against the woman, can it truly be considered idyllic? If you look up “idyllic” (idyllic) is defined in the dictionary as follows:
“A state free from any difficulty or danger; very pleasant, simple, and peaceful.”
The story includes the description, “The sexton was delighted, and the innkeeper was disgusted.” From the sexton’s perspective, this story might indeed be a joyful or idyllic tale. However, that is not the case for the rest of the people. Hemingway seems to have attempted to present the coexistence of these extremes as an idyllic state through the contrasts between mountains and valleys, nature and civilization (the church), darkness and lamplight, and barbarism and love. However, this symbolism—to use the analogy of a flute—is like a flute that doesn’t produce a clear sound; in other words, it is a symbol that does not function properly. This becomes immediately clear when compared to the symbolic function in “A Canary for My Daughter.” In the short story “The Light of the World” from Hemingway’s third collection, a white boxer named Steve Ketchum represents Jesus Christ, and Alice, a plump prostitute, is described as symbolizing Mary Magdalene; yet this, too, is a failed symbol. No matter how great a novelist may be, there are times when his craft falls short of the mark.
“The Chase”
The protagonist, William Campbell, engages in a chase with a burlesque troupe. The original term “burlesque” refers to a vulgar show. This troupe chasing Campbell is a symbol of life itself—more specifically, of a meaningless life. No matter how fast Campbell runs, he is overtaken by the troupe because he cannot go along with the vulgar and corrupt games of life, sliding along as they do. His depressed state of mind, resulting from his inability to win the race, is likened to a wolf, and to drive that wolf away, he drinks alcohol and eventually turns to drugs. Furthermore, Campbell always speaks while pretending to be someone other than himself. This state of pretense is likened to a single blanket. Coincidentally, “Billy,” who “glides along” and shares the same name, is the alter ego of William Campbell, who struggles to adapt to the games of the world (Billy is William’s nickname). The reason Mr. Turner finds it difficult to leave Campbell is because of this avatar-like relationship.
Why does Campbell feel a sense of futility in life? He once held certain values dear, but because they were repeatedly taken from him, he can no longer believe in them. In particular, he openly expresses his loathing for women. Horse manure, vulture droppings, and gonorrhea are concrete expressions of that loathing. This work effectively illustrates the psychological state of a person trapped in nihilism—unable to escape no matter what they do—through symbols such as wolves, horses, eagles, a single blanket, and Shodan. This profound nihilism brings to mind the prayer of Nada’ from “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” in the third collection of short stories.
‘nada. The Spanish word for nothingness: “Our Nada, who art in Nada; thy name is Nada; thy kingdom come; for all the world is Nada; thy will be done in Nada, that Nada may be. Give us this day our daily Nada; and as we Nada our Nada, so grant us our Nada. Lead us not into Nada, but deliver us from Nada. Amen, Nada. Praise Nada, which is full of Nada. For Nada is with you.”
James Joyce praised this “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” as Hemingway’s finest short story; such an achievement was made possible precisely because of his earlier works, such as “The Chase.”
“Today Is Friday”
Although this is a one-act play, it seems Hemingway included it because he felt it fit the character of the collection. This play depicts the psychological states of Roman Soldiers 1, 2, and 3 as they witness Jesus’s death. Among them, Soldier 2 particularly catches our attention. He argues that any human being—especially someone facing crucifixion—would want to come down from that cross (death). He says that if the nailing of a prisoner’s body could be stopped, any prisoner would try to stop it. In contrast, Soldier 1 consistently asserts that Jesus’s death was noble, while Soldier 3 appears deeply shaken by Jesus’s death. In the early 1920s, Hemingway delved deeply into the issue of death. Soldiers 1, 2, and 3 reflect Hemingway’s own psychological state—at times fearing death, at times wishing to accept it stoically, and at times feeling nauseated by it. Characters who view death in various ways also appear in works such as “The Man Who Refused to Be Defeated,” “In Another Country,” “The Killers,” “The Chase,” and “Now I Lie Here.” If you read these short stories with the theme of death in mind, you can clearly see how the effect of “layering” emerges.
“A Trivial Story”
At first glance, this story seems truly trivial. The narrator reads an advertisement for a magazine called ‘Forum’ in a small booklet. In addition, the booklet offers various cultured commentaries aimed at young people, and the narrator reads part of it before setting it aside. The booklet discusses the romance of life—here, “romance” refers to the life goals pursued by ordinary people. Then, the narrator suddenly shifts the focus of the story to the death of a bullfighter, implying that, compared to this man’s life, can such things truly be called “romance”? The death of the bullfighter Manuel García Maera is the central point of this novel. It argues that while the educated class may speak loftily about romance and art, such things are nothing more than trivial matters compared to the life of this man who died fighting fiercely against a bull in the arena—and that, in fact, the bullfighter’s life itself is the true embodiment of romance and art. At the same time, the text subtly suggests a dual perspective: that someone unfamiliar with bullfighting might, upon reading this, regard the bullfighter’s death as a trivial story. This novel is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of its protagonist, García Maera, “the man who refuses to accept defeat.” As we read this novel, we are led to reflect once more on the futility of life implied by bullfighting and on the man who challenges it.
“Now as I Lay Me Down”
The most common form of this prayer can be found in the ‘New England Primer’ (1784). The full text reads as follows: Now as I lay me down to sleep, I pray to the Lord to keep my soul. If I should die before I wake, I pray that the Lord may take my soul.
The “I” in this work lives in fear that he might die if he falls asleep, a fear stemming from post-war trauma. Therefore, he refuses to fall asleep unless he is certain he won’t fall out of bed, and he cannot sleep unless he is in a brightly lit room. The idea that darkness and light symbolize death and life, respectively, was already introduced in “In Another Country.” In “In Another Country,” a symbol of Italian grammar appears; in this work, that grammar reappears when the sentry, John, tells the lieutenant (the narrator) to get married, and the lieutenant replies, “I’m not very good with words.” Furthermore, the lieutenant says that whenever he thinks of women, the image always becomes blurry, but whenever he thinks of trout fishing, something new comes to mind. In other words, fishing is more comforting to the lieutenant than women. The significance of trout fishing is clearly revealed in the short story “The Great River with Two Hearts,” which appears in the first collection of short stories. Trout fishing symbolizes people or actions before they have become corrupted. According to “The Chase,” the things that corrupt people are those they love—such as women, horses, and eagles—and as seen in “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” from the third collection, these specifically include women, money, alcohol, religion, the economy, patriotism, gambling, ambition, politics, depression, and bread. Thus, the lieutenant—already corrupted by war—fears that a woman will lead him into even greater corruption.
Hemingway’s White Elephant
The characters in “Men Without Women” are indifferent to (or even repulsed by) women; they fear death but are simultaneously fascinated by it, to the point of wanting to fight against it, and they also show an interest in homosexuality. The reason for their fear of death seems relatively clear. The lieutenant in “Now I’m Going to Lie Down” fought on the Italian front, where he was hit by artillery fire, briefly lost consciousness, and then came back to life. As a result, he suffers from both a fear of death—wondering, “What if I die again?” (a post-war trauma)—and insomnia. At the same time, as a reflex to this, he has an extraordinary fascination with death. For instance, “Today Is Friday” presents three different perspectives on death. Death sometimes frightens the characters, but at other times exerts a captivating force over them. However, whether it is the Lieutenant in “Now I Lie Down” or the “I” in “In Another Country,” both men are reluctant to marry. In other words, they either fear or reject forming relationships with women.
Examining the reasons for this rejection of women in the texts reveals several distinct patterns. In “Ten Indians,” women are portrayed as traitors to men, while “May I Lie Down Now?” reveals the marital conflict experienced by the lieutenant’s parents. In particular, the scene where the headstrong mother ignores her husband’s wishes and arbitrarily burns his cherished mementos from the past symbolically illustrates the rift in their relationship. In “A Mountain Like a White Elephant,” the story emphasizes a woman who refuses to follow a man’s orders and steadfastly maintains her own position, while in “Idyll in the Alps,” a character appears who offends her husband with a single word. In “The Chase,” women are portrayed as carriers of disease. Taking these examples together, the characters in these works tend to perceive women as beings capable of corrupting men or even leading them to their deaths. This perception is rooted not merely in personal emotions but in deeper cultural and narrative contexts. If we trace its origins further back, we can find similar structures in ancient epics. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, gradually grows weary of a life where everything goes his way. Around that time, news spreads of a wild being named Enkidu in the primeval forest, who lives among animals and threatens humans. Gilgamesh sends a woman named Shamhat to use her powers to seduce and tame Enkidu, drawing him into human society. The “female power” displayed by Shamhat at this moment goes beyond mere seduction; it acts as a medium that draws a being from a natural and pure state into civilization. In this context, the symbol “vagina dentata,” which is often cited, reveals an ancient cultural imagination that views femininity as a force that threatens or transforms men. This, in turn, leads to the perception that an encounter with a woman can go beyond a simple relationship for a man, potentially resulting in a transformation of his very being—and even loss or danger. Ultimately, these narratives can be understood within a long-standing cultural tradition that has perceived women not merely as “the Other,” but as a powerful force capable of transforming—and at times even destroying—men’s lives. Joseph Campbell’s ‘The Masks of God: A Study of Primitive Mythology’ introduces the myth of the vagina dentata. A primal sense of women as cave-like beings—where one loses one’s way upon entering—and as entities as unpredictable as the changing forces of nature gave rise to the myth of the vagina dentata. From the perspective of a patriarchal world, women are seen as possessing unrestrained qualities. In that world, the rough, hard, and robust male physique is considered a highly desirable trait. In contrast, women—who are soft, talkative, and produce secondary fluids (breast milk, menstrual blood) as well as children—were seen as beings that contradicted such virtues. Furthermore, it was believed that once awakened, a woman’s sexual desire knew no satisfaction. Consequently, sexual promiscuity and talkativeness were regarded as the two primary characteristics of women. Therefore, a woman’s mouth and vagina were the core sources of male anxiety. In every instance, these two were subjects of suspicion and must be strictly controlled. We hear the powerful echo of the “Vagina Dentata” in this view of women. This concept persists in modern times as the term “femme fatale,” referring to a “deadly woman.” Circe, who turned Odysseus’s men into pigs, is the very prototype of this femme fatale. Given this historical background, the reason the characters in the story feel fear toward women is that they fear a power capable of weakening the unbeatable will of a “man who refuses defeat,” such as Manuel’s. Based on this perspective, we can understand why the characters sometimes perceive death as a ruthless force of nature—or as the power of a woman. Finally, let’s ask this question: To what extent do the characters in ‘Men Without Women’ reflect Hemingway himself? Hemingway’s acquaintances say he was originally a gentle, feminine, and timid person. Some acquaintances described him as sensitive, eager to write, and thoughtful; James Duver, for instance, referred to him as “gentlemanly, understanding, compassionate, and merciful.” However, Hemingway—known worldwide as a symbol of machismo due to his love of war, bullfighting, hunting, and boxing—spent his entire life wearing the persona (a mask) throughout his life. In contrast to the high artistic achievement of Hemingway’s novels and short story collections published in the 1920s, the reason his works failed to achieve success and continued to decline after the 1940s was that he mistook this persona for his true self and was unable to maintain artistic distance from it. This tendency also had adverse effects on Hemingway’s personal life. First, he began drinking excessively; as his health deteriorated due to the aftereffects, he was unable to properly manage his inner conflicts, leading him to fall into severe depression and excessive paranoia. Several years ago, there was an incident in which a Korean celebrity died at a gym after attempting to lose weight through extreme measures. By abusing his natural physique in such a manner, his body ultimately took revenge on its owner. What is suppressed will inevitably seek revenge, and the same is true of the mind. In fact, a suppressed nature never truly disappears. Halgwanjja (鶷冠子) stated that “when things reach their extreme, they must reverse” (物極必反), meaning that when a situation reaches an extreme, it inevitably returns to its original state; Freud, speaking of the “return of the repressed,” argued that what is repressed eventually surfaces and manifests as neurosis. Robert Louis Stevenson said the following:
“The fate and responsibility of life rest eternally upon the shoulders of man; if one strives to shake off that burden, it returns as a pressure even more alien and dreadful than before” (from ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’).
This principle that extremes inevitably reverse brought extreme turmoil to Hemingway’s later years. A person who walks around wearing a mask must point to that mask as they walk; in Hemingway’s case, however, the mask did not serve to maintain the artistic distance between the fictional character and the author, but instead became a “white elephant” that blurred the distinction between the two.
However, this describes only the later years of Hemingway’s life; in the Hemingway of the 1920s—who keenly felt the conflicts between fact and fiction, gentleness and strength, death and life, women and men, war and peace, while seeking artistic harmony—one sees the majestic yet intense anguish of Atlas, striving to rise while bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. The outstanding short stories collected in ‘Men Without Women’—including “The Man Who Refused to Be Defeated,” “In Another Country,” “A Mountain Like a White Elephant,” “Fifty Thousand Dollars,” “A Canary for My Daughter,” “The Chase,” and “Now I’m Going to Lie Down”—are masterpieces forged by that tormented soul.
