Controversial characters of In Our Time novel

            Ernest Hemingway has written many books, which have heralded him as a great author, but there is one novel that seems to have questions swirling about it, In Our Time. In this novel the main character is in question, you are unable to tell right away whether the chapters/stories are linked together as a novel, or if they are all separate short stories. Having read the book, and having done a background check on Ernest Hemingway the person, it is apparent that the stories are linked together and have a main character, Nick Adams, that progresses as the novel moves along. The first example is the way the life of the main character, Nick Adam, mimics Hemingway"s own life. There are far too many similarities between Nick Adam"s life and Hemingway"s life. Second, in reading the book, the reader can see the way Nick Adams grows as a person. This is not only because there is a direct link between chapters, but also there is foreshadowing, and there are the same characters used throughout the book.

             Ernest Hemingway"s In Our Time directly parallels Hemingway"s own life. The chapters are linked together in a way, though they are not linked through Nick Adams, who is the most mentioned character and is described the most in detail. The first section of stories is definitely linked, by the use of the same characters and the development of the characters. In some of the stories there are direct referrals to the previous story. As the reader reaches the middle of the book the connections start to diminish. The characters change, but the stories still follows Hemingway"s own life. It is as if the reader is following Nick, but in an indirect method. Nick is the same person, simply with a different name: such as Kreb, Mr. Elliot, and he. Many of the chapters have the pronoun "he" as opposed to an actual name. Towards the end of the book, the story refers back to the character Nick, and his development.

Related Essays: