Blog Post #9: "A Very Short Story" Postcolonial Criticism

The exemplification of the failure of the American soldier to maintain a relationship with the Italian nurse demonstrates the Lost Generation’s feelings of inadequacy. In the beginning of the story, the young soldier had believed that he was secure and protected in his mutual love with Luz. “Luz stayed on night duty for three months” to be with him, which in the soldier’s inexperienced mind was proof enough of her devotion. He also thought of himself as worthy of her love, doing what he thought were valiant actions, “holding tight on to himself so he would not blab about anything” and taking temperatures of patients “so Luz would not have to get up from the bed.” After the armistice, Luz and the young soldier planned to marry; however, “Luz would not come home” until the American soldier could get a “good job.” This is the start of the soldier’s disillusionment with his own self-worth and development. Although he promises not to drink and reaffirms that he only wants to “get a job and be married”, it becomes clear that his frame of thinking is naive and that these expressions of love are undeveloped and shallow. When he and Luz quarrel over her “not being willing to come home at once”, the mood is heavy with dissatisfaction. 

The young soldier’s struggle in establishing his identity corresponds to how America had to prove itself in the world. In the end, the relationship was thought of as “only a boy and girl love” by Luz. Luz eventually chooses an Italian major over the American soldier. The American soldier wasn’t as mature and secure as the Italian major, which parallels America’s adolescent identity. Thus the story serves as a potential alterity since it compares the young soldier to the experienced, more worldly major. The soldier’s inability to maintain the relationship demonstrates America’s inability to prove its stability in the world. Luz chose to leave the devoted soldier for the major “she had never known before.” By the end the once promising relationship was dismissed as only an “‘affair” between a “boy and a girl” rather than between adults. This shows the overall disillusionment that emerged after WWI, and what Ernest Hemingway called the “lost generation.” Reflected in the lukewarm indifference of the rejection letters Luz sent is Luz’s realization of how unrealistic the fairytale marriage between the soldier and herself. Yet in the bitter end, it is the young soldier’s realization of his own insignificance as well as that of his wartime love that is the most devastating.

This could also serve as a local narrative within the metanarrative. A metanarrative seeks to reveal a big truth about the world through short stories. Hemingway’s In Our Time is a collection of short stories about life before, during, and after World War I. These stories highlight the maturation of Nick, the main character within all of these pieces. The war was a catalyst for sexual, intellectual and emotional changes within young men, yet these developments may not always be seen in such a positive light. Luz calls their affair, “...only a boy and girl love” which strips the intimacy from what was seen a meaningful relationship. This alludes to Hemingway’s main point that America is still a young and immature nation no matter what the outcome of the war. This is further solidified by the immature actions of the soldier when he, “…contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park.” The soldier’s difficulty with his own identity and relationships is a small story which reveals the hard truth about America being inexperienced and naive despite a strong presence in world affairs.