In Another Country

After reading, “In Another Country,” by Hemingway, I was intrigued by many things in the short story. First I felt as if Hemingway was using the speaker as a way to give the reader a better insight on how war affects lives in another country. An example of this would be when the speaker begins to explain how the cafe’ girls seem to be more patriotic than everyone else. He says, “The girls at the Cova were very patriotic, and I found that the most patriotic people in Italy were the café’ girls—and I believe they are still patriotic.” (208) This is not something one would expect in America which is why the speaker seemed to find this shocking to him.
I also found it interesting how Hemingway seemed to ensure that the reader always knew that the speaker was an outsider as he always seemed detached from what was going on around him. For example, when the speaker talks about how he and the other three boys were friends, their attitude towards him apparently changes once they learn of how he earns his medals. The speaker does not seem to care too much about this as he is proud of having earned his medals. The other three boys seem to look down on him making him something of an outcast within the group in addition to not being a native of the country.
Another thing that I found to be interesting in this short story was the way that Hemingway seemed to downplay the war itself. He does this with the major. The major has obviously been more involved with the war than the other mentioned characters in the story but seems more distraught after losing his wife. This very thing brought the major to tears showing that there were bigger things going on than the war.