DRA 374 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Ernest Hemingway, Existentialism
Document Summary
In this chapter hemingway shows the mental distress that killing people puts on soldiers. Jordan, the protagonist, examines the military papers of the man that he has just shot, noting that before the war, he could have been someone he had seen anywhere in spain. Jordan reads the personal letters and learns that the man"s fianc e was very religious. Jordan recounts to the illiterate primitivo a short bit of what the letters contained. After their conversation, jordan is lost in his own thoughts, as to the horrors of war and the effects on guilt on his own psyche. He questions his own right to forget the men that he has killed. Furthermore, he realizes that he is fighting on a side that is highly motivated by communism, a political and belief system that he does not support. After this, he recognizes that he is truly in love with maria and stops denying it.
