In Another Country

Many of Hemingway’s stories have a single focus, but “In Another Country” has two: the glory of war, and the risk of marriage. Hemingway also explores issues of masculinity under the pressures of war. In particular, he shows how the military draws distinctions between the degrees of valor soldiers display while on the battlefield. Those who risk death and inflict death on others achieve more glory than those who serve less violently. The heroes shine, while others lack glory. This cruel code seems to be embedded deep within the men in the story.

As the story opens, six soldiers have left the war behind and find themselves in an almost otherworldly and peaceful environment where they are nurtured back to health. Details of luxuries and rewards are sprinkled throughout the descriptions: fine meats at a butcher shop, warm chestnuts on a bridge, a beautiful old hospital, camaraderie among the men, and young women waiting for them at the nightclub. Compared to the horrors of the trenches, they seem to be in heaven.

There is no hint that any of them have shirked their obligations or displayed any cowardice in war. They have all passed that test. Four of them won the same medal, and they wear the uniform of the same military, but there are differences among them, and they come to know that.