For today’s discussion, please respond to Chapters 10-15 of Death in the Afternoon. Here are a few questions you might want to consider:
- What purpose do you think the character of the Old Lady serves in the text? Why does Hemingway invent her? Do you think he makes fun of the Old Lady or does he treat her seriously?
- Why do you think Hemingway included the section in Chapter Twelve, called “A Natural History of Death,” in a book that is supposedly all about bullfighting?
- Another odd section in today’s reading is the story of the two homosexual men in Chapter Fifteen that the narrator tells the Old Lady. What do you make of this? What does it have to do with the book as a whole?
Hemingway includes one of his short stories titled “A Natural History of Death,” in his novel Death in the Afternoon. At first, the switch from bullfighting to this was quite jarring. As readers, we are taken back to a time of the war front in WWI, we see various accounts of death and a close examination of it from a “natural” point of view. Back to the days of Hemingway’s time in Italy working as an ambulance driver, we are also interacting with a sort of narrator (Hemingway) and an “old lady” character within the story as well. It is easy to get lost in this portion of the novel simply due to the switch of narrative. Moving through the story, Hemingway writes: “The only natural death I’ve ever seen, outside of loss of blood, which isn’t bad, was death from Spanish Influenza” (218). This line has everything to do with bullfighting. We are able to examine the different types of death and how they affect us. So, in this instance we see natural deaths, deaths of men, and deaths by blood. By honing on this naturalist view point we can see how it relates to the deaths seen in bull fighting. All the things a death makes you feel, how it can all differ, but most of all just the basis of the existence of death after all. By looking at these types of deaths in war we can compare and contrast within bullfighting. The “natural” that exists death also exists in bullfighting and it is highlighted in this short story.
I wasn’t sure what to make of the Old Lady when she first appears in the novel. It almost seemed as if Hemingway realized there was all of this dense description halfway through writing and threw her in the text to break it up. To me she serves as a sense of dialogue that the novel doesn’t have as frequently as other novels do. Her conversations with the author after every story give readers a break from taking in and processing heavily detailed information about bullfighting and lets readers glide through the dialogue. It feels a lot easier to read when reading their conversations. I think another reason Hemingway includes her is to offer an opportunity for the old lady to ask questions that readers would most likely have about what he tells her. Readers are getting their questions answered without having to interpret anything they read. Readers who know about the sport of bullfighting might find their conversations condescending, yet for people who read this and know nothing about bullfighting, the questions she asks are valid and help them learn as much as they can about bullfighting. It brings in more of an audience by including more dialogue and one with silly banter about the bullfighters. I am not sure, however, of how Hemingway means to treat her. To me she seems to be this comedic character that you wouldn’t assume to have such an interest in bullfighting, yet ‘listens’ to all of these stories about bullfighting from the author. I can see at times how he could be making fun of her, by having her obsess over the bullfighters, but to me overall it helped bring a more light-hearted aspect to the topics of goring and death surrounding the sport.
Chapter Twelve, titled “A Natural History of Death,” delves into a broader reflection on the nature of death, not limited to the context of bullfighting. In this section, Hemingway explores the universal themes of mortality, the inevitability of death, and the various ways people confront and come to terms with it. By discussing the different forms of death and the many ways people come to accept it, he is providing more context about bullfighting. Hemingway wants the reader to have a full understanding of bullfighting, and to that, you need to understand all the risks, implications, and intensity associated with the culture around bullfighting. This section also challenges the reader to begin thinking philosophically about their own feelings towards death. Whether you are afraid or not afraid, have griefed before, or are even comfortable with the idea of death. I think that if the subject of death makes you uncomfortable in any extreme way, then bullfighting certainly isn’t for you. Hemingway, I believe, is trying to guide the reader to understand the human condition and mortality. Furthermore, the inclusion of a section on death might have been a deliberate choice to break up the narrative, providing a moment of reflection or contrast within the overall structure of the book.