8/7/2019 A Very Short Story Explication

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A Very Short Story, at just over 600 words, is a fitting model to explore certain major elements of

Ernest Hemingways style. Known for being able to tell stories and evoke moods using as few words as

possible, Hemingway, in his typical fashion, constructs a narrative with such economy and

understatement that the reader is only left with the tip of the iceberg and is forced to swim into

deeper depths in order to get to the essence of what this story is all about.

The fact that, in 600 words, Hemingway gives us the full course of a relationship and fills in the skeleton

with powerful and significant impressions is a testament to his style. The unnamed male figure, first

introduced as a patient in a hospital in Italy (presumably during World War I), falls in love with a popular

nurse named Luz and intends to marry her until he returns to America and their relationship dissipates

and fades quietly into the past. If he did capture the over-arching idea for the story in one true

sentence, it would be the simple line She loved him as always, but she realized now it was only a boy

and girl love. This sentence is so basic that it almost feels elementary, but there is a density to it that

we could spend a lot of time unpacking. Luz sees her love with the American soldier in the Italian

hospital as a childish affair, and she seems to have outgrown it. Luz loved him and loves him still, but

shes now got a more sophisticated definition of what love means.

What does this say in terms of the story? The story is abouttheir relationship and its slanted towards

his perspective. And the last we heard from him he was making sacrifices and awaiting her in America.

So we get a definite sense of rejection and disappointment. This is a story about young love and

disillusionment, and, like most of Hemingways works, its underpinnings lie in his own life while he was a

soldier during World War I. Its weary and cynical, and its thematically heavy with the loss of innocence

and the futility of pursuing something meaningful. It sticks in your throat, especially when paired with a

previous sentence from earlier in the story: They felt as though they were married, but they wanted

everyone to know about it, and to make it so they could not lose it. To go from one sentence to the

other with so little text in between is disorienting and devastating. But the devastation has nomelodrama. Its so damn matter-of-fact it doesnt leave any room for feelings.

Hemingway is known for dealing thematically with painful and tragic circumstances with a tough,

matter-of-fact tone. He frequently writes about sickness, violence, and death in a way that seems

inappropriately detached from sadness and sentimentality. At times, his c'est la vie sensibility feels

rightfully stoic and strong with his honorable sense of teeth-gritting, muscle-straining grace under

pressure. Other times it comes off with shuddering coldness as little more than a Lost Generation

sensation of shell-shocked, soul-crushed indifference. The last line of the story reverberates with this

sense of apathy and cold disillusionment: A short time after he contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl

in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park. Is this sad? There is nothing

sad or sentimental about his rhetoric. He just gives us the details, yet were left with this aching senseof hollowness. We may or may not be moved to feel sad, but its hard to read this story and not walk

away feeling an overwhelming sense of emptiness. This is what is so fascinating about what Hemingway

does with his words. Its like the opposite of someone who writes about heartbreaking things in order

to manipulate the reader into feeling something. Hemingway writes about things that are heartbreaking

but then sits back and leaves us to ourselves to contemplate our own capacity for emotion. Its almost

like hes testing us.