Brokenness is a consequence the earth faces every day. The world’s greatest pains are sometimes more than just physical pain, but are deep emotional wounds. Too often, the most broken people are the ones that have been to war and have lived to tell about it. In Earnest Hemingway’s short story “In Another Country,” he depicts brokenness through character descriptions, irony, and imagery. Utilizing these methods, Hemingway forms a picture of how devastating life can be, especially in the trench battles of World War I. As the reader is introduced to each character, the underlying brokenness of each one’s psyche can be inferred. Hemingway forms each character with physical and mental brokenness, even though they may not admit that they are. The first character introduced is an American soldier named Nick Adams, who was wounded in the war. On the surface, Nick appears to be coping with his injury brilliantly. He is positive about his recovery and tries to make the most out of his time at the hospital in Milan. However, as Hemingway illustrates Nick’s emotions through his own thoughts, it is apparent that he is holding back deep pain and sadness. This is evidenced when he states “I would imagine myself having done all the things they had done to get their medals… I knew that I would never have done such things, and I was very much afraid to die… and wondering how I would be when I went back to the front again” (1594). It is apparent that Nick is not only physically but emotionally scarred from his experiences in the war. Inside, he is self-conscious about how he earned his medal. The thought of re-entering the war traumatizes him because of his fear of death and his lack of belief that he could actually do something noteworthy, which adds to his broken condition.
Through Nick, Hemingway introduces Signor Maggiore, or simply – the major. He had
