While I was reading the chapters assigned over the weekend, what really popped out at me was the continuous lack of a great male-female relationship.
We see very early on that the male-male relationships are great, for example in "Three Day-Blow" Nick and Bill have a very open conversation about the struggles Nick has in his relationship with Marjorie. We never see a conversation like this one through out IOT during a male-female relationship. The lack of a male-female relationship through out Hemingway's short story collection became even in more so in the final two chapters we read over the weekend.
In "Mr. And Mrs. Elliot" we do see maybe a start of something with Hubert and Cornelia, but shortly began to falter. "Mrs. Elliot became much brighter after her girl friend came" (87). The relastionship soon faltered to the point where Hubert had taken his own room, and Cornelia and her "girl friend" slept together. Hemingway even noted at the end of the story "In the evening....Elliot drank white wine and Mr. Elliot and the girl friend made conversation and they were all quite happy." Again a lack of male-female interaction.
In "Cat In The Rain" the lack of a positive male-female relationship. The relationship between George in his wife is very discrete, and not very loving. The wife goes on a rant about how she wants to stop looking like a boy, how she "want(s) to pull my hair back tight and smooth" and George replies with a discrete "Yeah?" She continues on this rant, but George is non-loving, pays no attention to it and dismisses it off like it is nothing with a "Oh, shut up and go read something."
The lack of a male-female relationship continues in the chapters we read this weekend, and was taken up a degree in my opinion. I do not know exactly what Hemingway is trying to show with the lack of this relationship, maybe the struggle a solider has with coming home from war, where he was with men all the time, and adapting to the relationship he has to sustain with a female?
To continue that idea I also believe that Great Expectations also has a lack of male-female relationships. Right before Pip is beaten by Mrs. Joe Pip says, "and knowing her to have a hard heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me" (8).
ReplyDeleteThe violence that occurs in the male-female relationships (Joe and Mrs. Joe, and Pip and Mrs. Joe) is not exactly the same as Hemingway; however, it does display a failed/broken male-female relationship.
Another similarity is that both stories have an essence of male bondage or camaraderie. For example Joe and Pip look out for each other and before Mrs. Joe arrives home Joe says, "She's a coming! Get behind the door, old chap, and have the jack-towel betwixt you" (9). The warning Joe gives displays their friendship and successful relationship.
Although it is to early to tell in Great Expectations whether failed male-female relationships will play a large role as in In Our Time they seem to be pretty significant so far.
I agree... there are very few male to female relationships and interactions in "In Our Time", however there are also and primarily a lot of male to male interactions. Think of all the stories that we have read so far; most of them, the main characters have been males, even in the chapters.
ReplyDeleteEven in "Great Expectations" there have been very few relationships that were primarily male to female. Most of them are with Pip and Joe or him and his secret convict.
And I don't know if this is taking it s step too far but in the time period that these stories were publishes, males still played a much greater roll in real life than women did (in their opinion). I think these stories make sense of this and it results in all the male to male relationships.
I feel like the majority of these problems stem from poor or lack of communication (which also brings back the idea of detachment). For example Nick spoke is a very distant and distracted manner right before he broke up with Marjorie.
ReplyDeleteIn the other stories such as the doctor and the doctors wife, the characters are communicating but they aren't one the same page and have trouble picking up on eachothers emotions