Get a Seeing-eyed Dog

In "Get a Seeing-eyed Dog", Ernest Hemingway addressed the issue of becoming handicapped and the different emotions and perceptions it entails. The man, Philip, was recently blinded by an unknown cause, and his wife or girlfriend is taking care of him. This story really focuses on the points of view from both the invalid to the world and the world to the invalid.

From the text, we can see that the woman is entirely devoted to Philip and does not want to leave him. She wants to be there for him, partly because of her love for him but also because of sympathy. However, I think the major reason that she stays is because she feels sorry for him, pitying his current condition. She feels it is her duty to stay and take care of him. This is represented by the woman trying to be more like a nurse, getting him drinks and prompting him to remember things, and acting less like a lover. They were once equals, but now the fact of the matter is that they are not. Whether she wants to or not, she looks down on him, not in a condescending way, yet still as an inferior, someone needing to be taken care of. In her eyes, he is an invalid now, and no matter how hard they try to act normal, nothing will ever be the same. In the woman's defense, who can blame her for the way she acts? I think it is a universal aspect of behavior in which we do not treat people with disabilities with the equality that they want to be treated. It is wrong and unfair to do, but it is in our nature. It is these barriers that this couple in the story are struggling against.

Philip realizes this and resents the fact that she stays because she feels sorry for him. Even though he wants her there to love him and to be his eyes on the world, Philip knows he cannot keep her there with a clean conscience. The idea that he would be holding her back caring for him day after day during the prime of her life is unbearable to him, and he knows he can't do it. In the words of Philip, "I've got this now for the rest of my life and I must figure out ways not to destroy her life and ruin her with it." All he wants is to be treated like an equal, yet her sympathy constantly reminds him that his handicap is indeed a barrier between them, and there is nothing they can do about it. He feels his only option is to send her away, not just for her own sake, but for his as well. Philip wants to be a person again, and there is no way he can do that with her around, helping him, making him feel helpless. I believe that though neither Philip or the girl will say it aloud, they both want to be separate, but they will not act on it, partially because of how they think they should act and behave, and thus will continue living together unhappily.

"A Cat in the Rain"

When I first read “A Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway, I was struck by how much dialogue there was. This made it difficult, or at least more challenging to interpret or completely understand the story. It starts out in Italy with a wife and her husband, George, in their hotel room facing the sea. The wife sees a cat huddled under a table outside in the rain, and she becomes determined to save it. When she goes out to rescue it, she discovers that it was not there anymore. She returns to her room dejected, only to be surprised by a knock on the door. It is the maid holding the cat from outside, which she says is from the padrone. I thought that it was quite obvious from the lack of interest and non-personal responses from George that the couple’s marriage is starting to crumble. She notices and begins to like the old man at the front desk of the hotel, because he “made her feel very small and at the same time really important.” She, like everyone, wants to feel special and loved and she gets that feeling from the old man. The wife relishes this feeling since her husband, George, is disinterested in her. The conversation she and George have concerning her hair is also important. She likes the idea of letting it grow out, but he says he likes it the way it is. George can be seen as controlling his wife, not letting her do what she wants, either with her hair or with any aspect of her life. Compare this to the kind old man, who always wishes to serve her. He even sends a maid out with an umbrella so she would not get wet, and truly cares about her well being. The only thing that her husband does is warn her not to get wet. I thought the cat in this story was a symbol for the wife. She is feeling all alone and desolate, waiting for someone to come and rescue her. When she tells George about the cat, or herself, suffering out in the rain, he says that he will get it, yet makes no move to back up his words with actions. His love for his wife is only superficial- he says that he does, but does not really mean it. Meanwhile, the padrone bows to her and treats her like royalty, always making her feel important. He went out and got the cat but did not say anything about it. Here is a man that speaks with his actions, effectively “rescuing” the woman from her unloved state out in the rain. The wife sees this and I think she will leave her husband for the padrone.
All in all, I thought this was an interesting story. There is a lot of meat in it, but just like with other Hemingway works, it is not at the surface; one has to dive down to unearth the true meaning.

Fathers and Sons

“Fathers and Sons” by Ernest Hemmingway really got me thinking about father-son relationships and how we define them. The story is basically Nick Adams coming home to the place he grew up with his son sitting next to him asleep in the car. After a while, Nick starts looking at the corn fields and thinking about his father. We are then treated to a variety of stories about his father that help us to understand who he is. I think that the most important story Nick recalls about his father is the one in which Nick shoots a black squirrel and his father gives him a lesson in things of a sexual nature, namely masturbation and having sex with prostitutes. He tells Nick that terrible things will happen to him if he does those things, such as blindness, death, or venereal diseases. From this we can see that the father has straight-laced morals, or at least pretends to around his son in the effort to make Nick a better person than he was. I thought this was an odd exchange and it revealed more about Nick and his father than first meets the eye.
As Nick drives down the familiar roads, he realizes that everything is different, and in turn, that he has changed as well. I thought the way Nick describes the forest as a “virgin forest” was alluding to his own experiences when he was younger. After remembering the forest, he recalls hunting with his Indian friend Billy and having sex with Billy’s sister, Trudy. I think Trudy wants more out of this merely physical relationship than Nick does. At one point when he is hunting, she puts her hand in his pocket to “explore.” It seems like she always wants him, while it doesn’t really matter either way to Nick. After they have sex, Trudy is preoccupied with the thought of whether Nick and she “made a baby this time.” She seems emotionally attached to Nick, while he is withdrawn. After she asks this, the story states “Something inside Nick had gone a long way away.” He is very put off from her and he is just using her for sex. When the group is off hunting the black squirrels, Billy tells Nick that his older brother Eddie wants Nick’s sister Dorothy. Nick gets extremely upset, or at least pretends to be, shooting off a round with his shotgun. This is ironic, because Nick is sleeping with Trudy, and Billy knows it. In my opinion, he is testing Nick to see what he would do if someone was violating his sister. He decides to go for the shock factor, describing the brutal murder of the perpetrator of his kin. This scares both Billy and Trudy, and strikes both with fear for their brother and for themselves. Trudy eventually calms Nick down, by offering him sex, and Nick gets exactly what he wants. Because of this power to intimidate and get what he wants, he thinks of himself as a man now.
Another important point in the story that struck me was when Nick’s son wakes up and asks about the Indians and his grandfather. Nick wonders how he can explain how he used an Indian girl for sex and how he can only remember her physical characteristics to his son. He realizes that he cannot tell his son without painting himself in a bad light, so he does not tell him about the Indians. Nick’s son wonders why they never visit his grandfather in his tomb, and vows that he will visit Nick in his grave when he dies. I think this defines the relationship between Nick and his son. The son wants to be close to his father and obviously loves and trusts him. Nick remembers how his father was cruel and punishing and how he was scared of him. By remembering this, Nick wants to and decides to be a better father to his son than his father was to him.