In Another Country

by

Ernest Hemingway

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The Narrator Character Analysis

An American soldier injured in World War I, the unnamed narrator—widely accepted to be Hemingway’s autobiographical alter ego Nick Adams—is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Milan. Before the war he used to play football, but no longer can due to his leg injury. He spends every afternoon at the hospital in the machines that are meant to heal him and the other officers seeking treatment, although he doubts their effectiveness. While at the hospital he also learns Italian grammar from the major, but worries about sounding foolish when he cannot get it right. Though largely isolated from the foreign environment surrounding him, the narrator does manage to befriend four other military officers his own age who are also seeking treatment at the hospital. The narrator has earned a medal for his contribution to the war, though the other boys have earned their medals for more daring acts, causing him to feel insecure about his own courage. Though they drift apart, the narrator remains friends with the boy with no nose who was injured only an hour into his first battle, as he feels more comfortable with someone else who has also not proven their bravery.

The Narrator Quotes in In Another Country

The In Another Country quotes below are all either spoken by The Narrator or refer to The Narrator. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Isolation Theme Icon
).
In Another Country Quotes

In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more.

Related Characters: The Narrator
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:

Beyond the old hospital were the new brick pavilions, and there we met every afternoon and were all very polite and interested in what was the matter and sat in the machines that were to make so much difference.

Related Characters: The Narrator
Related Symbols: Machines
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:

We walked the short way through the communist quarter because we were four together. The people hated us because we were officers, and from a wineshop some one would call out, “A basso gli ufficiali!” as we passed.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With Three Medals
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:

He had lived a very long time with death and was a little detached. We were all a little detached, and there was nothing that held us together except that we met every afternoon at the hospital.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With No Nose, The Boy With Three Medals
Related Symbols: Medals
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] we felt held together by there being something that had happened that they, the people who disliked us, did not understand.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With No Nose, The Boy With Three Medals
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

I was a friend, but I was never really one of them after they had read the citations, because it had been different with them and they had done very different things to get their medals.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With Three Medals
Related Symbols: Medals
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

The three with the medals were like hunting-hawks; and I was not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted; they, the three, knew better and so we drifted apart.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With Three Medals
Related Symbols: Medals
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

The major came very regularly to the hospital. I do not think he ever missed a day, although I am sure he did not believe in the machines. There was a time when none of us believed in the machines, and one day the major said it was all nonsense.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Major
Related Symbols: Machines
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that. He should not place himself in a position to lose. He should find things he cannot lose.

Related Characters: The Major (speaker), The Narrator
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:

He looked straight past me and out through the window. Then he began to cry. "I am utterly unable to resign myself,” he said and choked. And then crying, his head up looking at nothing, carrying himself straight and soldierly, with tears on both his cheeks and biting his lips, he walked past the machines and out the door.

Related Characters: The Major (speaker), The Narrator
Related Symbols: Machines
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:

When he came back, there were large framed photographs around the wall, of all sorts of wounds before and after they had been cured by the machines. In front of the machine the major used were three photographs of hands like his that were completely restored. I do not know where the doctor got them. I always understood we were the first to use the machines. The photographs did not make much difference to the major because he only looked out of the window.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Major, The Doctor
Related Symbols: Machines, Photographs
Page Number: 210
Explanation and Analysis:
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In Another Country PDF

The Narrator Quotes in In Another Country

The In Another Country quotes below are all either spoken by The Narrator or refer to The Narrator. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Isolation Theme Icon
).
In Another Country Quotes

In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more.

Related Characters: The Narrator
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:

Beyond the old hospital were the new brick pavilions, and there we met every afternoon and were all very polite and interested in what was the matter and sat in the machines that were to make so much difference.

Related Characters: The Narrator
Related Symbols: Machines
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:

We walked the short way through the communist quarter because we were four together. The people hated us because we were officers, and from a wineshop some one would call out, “A basso gli ufficiali!” as we passed.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With Three Medals
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:

He had lived a very long time with death and was a little detached. We were all a little detached, and there was nothing that held us together except that we met every afternoon at the hospital.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With No Nose, The Boy With Three Medals
Related Symbols: Medals
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] we felt held together by there being something that had happened that they, the people who disliked us, did not understand.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With No Nose, The Boy With Three Medals
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

I was a friend, but I was never really one of them after they had read the citations, because it had been different with them and they had done very different things to get their medals.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With Three Medals
Related Symbols: Medals
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

The three with the medals were like hunting-hawks; and I was not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted; they, the three, knew better and so we drifted apart.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Boy With Three Medals
Related Symbols: Medals
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

The major came very regularly to the hospital. I do not think he ever missed a day, although I am sure he did not believe in the machines. There was a time when none of us believed in the machines, and one day the major said it was all nonsense.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Major
Related Symbols: Machines
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:

If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that. He should not place himself in a position to lose. He should find things he cannot lose.

Related Characters: The Major (speaker), The Narrator
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:

He looked straight past me and out through the window. Then he began to cry. "I am utterly unable to resign myself,” he said and choked. And then crying, his head up looking at nothing, carrying himself straight and soldierly, with tears on both his cheeks and biting his lips, he walked past the machines and out the door.

Related Characters: The Major (speaker), The Narrator
Related Symbols: Machines
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:

When he came back, there were large framed photographs around the wall, of all sorts of wounds before and after they had been cured by the machines. In front of the machine the major used were three photographs of hands like his that were completely restored. I do not know where the doctor got them. I always understood we were the first to use the machines. The photographs did not make much difference to the major because he only looked out of the window.

Related Characters: The Narrator, The Major, The Doctor
Related Symbols: Machines, Photographs
Page Number: 210
Explanation and Analysis: