A Very Short Story

The soldier is a complex and dynamic character. He is introduced as a wounded soldier with an unspecified injury; he is in the hospital to heal from physical wounds but is intent of maintaining a certain level of control. For example, when he undergoes surgery and experiences the effects of the anesthesia, he “hold[s] tight on to himself so he would not blab anything during the silly, talky time” (Paragraph 2). He is caring and attentive toward Luz, even while he is injured, and helps takes the temperatures of other patients so that Luz doesn’t have to get up from bed.

The soldier’s desire to please Luz and provide for her echoes throughout the first two thirds of the story. The soldier places his ambition to marry Luz above everything else; when he returns to America he agrees with her that “he would not drink, and he did not want to see his friends or anyone in the States. Only to get a job and be married” (Paragraph 4). As such, Ernest Hemingway initially presents the soldier as a romantic and idealistic young man, and at first, the love he shares with Luz is redemptive and healing; his time at the hospital serves to improve both his physical and emotional wellbeing.