Theme Of Youth Loss And Death In Our Times

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The Youth, Loss, And Death In Our Times
Ernest Hemingway uses the various events in Nick Adams life to expose the reader to the themes of youth, loss, and death throughout his novel In Our Time. Youth often plays its part in war, and since In Our Time writes very frequently about war; it is not a surprise that the theme of youth is seen in many of the stories. In “Indian Camp” the innocence of youth is shown in the last sentence of the story: “In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.” (19) When this sentence and the conversation Nick and his father have before they get on the boat are combined in thought it shows that because of Nicks age at the time that he does not yet understand the concept of death.
Throughout the book there is a sort of relationship between youthfulness and aging. This can be seen in “Three-Day Blow” when Nick and Bill are drinking, acting childish and just having fun. They talk about each others’ fathers and about missed opportunities even though they can’t really understand what they are discussing without experiencing it for themselves. In the chapter titled “The Battler” Nick loses his innocence when brakeman punches him and throws him of the train. “What a lousy kid thing to have done. They would never suck him in that way again.” (53) shows that Nick is quite mad with being pushed around and treated like a child and promises himself that it would not happen again. In “Cross-Country Snow” it is shown in the conversations that Nick and George have during their ski trip that Nick has adopted more of a cynical attitude and not much of his youthful innocence is left. In the middle of the chapter when Nick and G...

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...like a tragedy but later on in the novel it is treated as a victory in the bull fighting vignettes. When the matador faces off with the bull, usually the bull is killed and in that culture is hailed as the victor.
Using the matador vignettes, Ernest Hemingway examines the issue of death within war in an indirect style of writing. The goal of the matador is to kill the bull, if he does so the crowd hails him as a victor but if the bull kills the matador then the matador is just replaced with another bullfighter. This is similar to war, if the soldiers kill the enemy then they are victorious but if the soldier is killed then he is replaced with another soldier. This is just one example of the subtle comparisons that can be seen throughout Hemingway’s novel. But really in the end Ernest Hemingway utilized all three of these themes to show subtle messages of life.

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