The Inferred Resolution of Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time

Abstract

<p>This thesis looks at the first published collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time. In this paper an attempt is made to bridge the gap between those critics who see unity in the collection as a whole and those who see unity in each individual piece. The approach assumed in this study believes that each piece in the collection follows a problem and solution pattern. The pattern is unified by a silent, infer.red resolution in each story. The accumulation of these unified pieces renders the whole of the collection a unity as well. The collection becomes a coherent discussion concerning itself with the nature of a subjective code of conduct in an amoral, secular world. The primary task of this paper is to carry out a consideration of each respective piece in the collection. In doing this, the inferred resolution of each story comes to the surface. The accretion of these inferred resolutions makes it possible to view the work as Hemingway's discussion of a personal ethics. This, by implication, is Hemingway's prescription for the means by which to shape one's existence in the world of the twentieth century.</p>