Please respond to one or both of the Hemingway stories on the syllabus for today. While you’re always free to write about anything that interested you, here are some prompts to get you started thinking:
“The Denunciation”
- How do you think readers are meant to react to the narrator’s assertion to the waiter that “It is thy problem” (92)? Should we admire the narrator for taking this stance or should we blame him? Do you think the narrator is cowardly? What do you think about his decision to call the Security office at the very end? How does Hemingway want us to view this?
“The Butterfly and the Tank”
- One issue that this story addresses is the moral responsibility of writers and artists during wartime. Really, all four of the stories we’re reading this week comment on this theme. What do you think about the morality of the narrator writing this story? How does his view of the “flit king” change over the course of the story? What about the bar manager’s interpretation of the incident at the end? Are we to see it as meaningful or overly grandiose? What do you think Hemingway is saying in this story? (By the way, a “flit gun” is used to spray insecticide on flies and mosquitos).
One issue that this story addresses is the moral responsibility of writers and artists during wartime. Really, all four of the stories we’re reading this week comment on this theme. What do you think about the morality of the narrator writing this story? How does his view of the “flit king” change over the course of the story? What about the bar manager’s interpretation of the incident at the end? Are we to see it as meaningful or overly grandiose? What do you think Hemingway is saying in this story?
“The Butterfly and the Tank” reminded me of Death in the Afternoon in the sense that while the story had a major theme, it also can serve as a commentary on writing, on the obligations of a writer. In Death in the Afternoon we see bullfighting being used as the major theme while in a secondary way Hemingway also breaks the fourth wall to discuss audience, dialogue, prose, the nature of writing itself. Likewise, the more obvious theme of “The Butterfly and the Tank” contrasts the seriousness of war with the unfortunate coincidence of the flit man’s “gaiety,” but it also contrasts the writer’s responsibility in wartime with the fact that art should not be limited by circumstance. The secondary plot of both stories seems to concern writing itself— for the novel, “The Author” worries that this guidebook style of writing is not up to his audience’s usual standard, for the short story, the narrator also breaks the fourth wall to discuss the title and theme of “‘The Butterfly and the Tank’” with the bartender. Both of these themes in the short story contrast war with regular life in some sense: the flit man was a regular person who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the bartender at the end points out, and the narrator, believes he should not have to edit his art because he happens to be in a time and place where to do so would be “‘bad for the cause.’” The flit man wandering in on this darkened bar in a “city under siege,” trying to joke with a “people under siege,” and suffering the undeserved consequences of this, becomes symbolic of the author (both the in-story narrator and Hemingway) who may receive criticism of a work either because it is too political, not poltiical enough, or political in an unpopular way. The narrator here really doesn’t seem to waver in his opinion that his stories should be written regardless— he does question the bartender on what the woman told him, but to me this was not a real moment of doubt or forfeit, he simply wanted another opinion.
In Hemingway’s short story, ‘Denunciation”, the narrator Enrique makes a few decisions in the story that speaks to his character. Firstly, to say “It is thy problem” (92), I think shows an attitude toward the war that’s similar to Robert Jordan’s. Jordan didn’t believe or want to get attached to anyone, in order to save himself from any disappointment or depression. Throughout the story, we are exposed to the fact that Enrique does have long-standing connections with people and places, but to say “It is the problem” shows that he has a logical mindset, and doesn’t get caught up in the emotion of the war. At least, he tries not to, however later on he demonstrates sympathy and ambivalence towards Luis. Luis is an old friend that he recognized from before the war, but during the war, he became a fascist. He shows up in a loyalist location in a loyalist uniform, and Enrique dubs him a fool for doing so. The waiter, who is also aware of Luis’ status, is given a direct number of a security member by Enrique and denounces Luis to them. However, before the security officers kill Luis, Enrique calls his friend, Pepe, who helped arrest him, and asks that he be given credit for denouncing Luis. This is so he still has good ideas about the bar and waiter, rather than dying whilst thinking poorly of the bar. I’m not sure if Enrique does this for nostalgic reasons, remember how the place used to be separate from politics and for any man, or if he is truly and simply acting sympathetically towards an old friend.
In “Denunciation,” the narrator states “It is thy problem” to the waiter. He had previously expressed his love for Chicotes and the fact that no one talked politics in the bar. I don’t think one can blame the narrator for saying this; he came to the bar to have the feelings that the bar brought him pre-war, yet becomes confronted with the present struggles at hand. I think the narrator is facing an internal struggle in this story of wanting to separate himself from the war and its politics while wanting to do the same for others. He humanizes the fascist supporter in the bar when describing an encounter with him in the previous years. He feels guilty for giving the waiter a number to call to arrest the man, so exclaims he would never personally denounce him, and that he is a foreigner in this war. In the end, however, the decision to tell security it was himself who denounced the fascist instead of the waiter showed his desire for peace; for the war to be over. He recognizes that without politics the two gentlemen were friends in the bar before the war. He doesn’t want either man to be angry with the other.
As for “The Butterfly in the Tank,” I think Hemingway notes the importance of writing the truth about something so people will know it happened. Without the narrator writing about this there would neve have been a first hand experience of an incident of crimeless killings during the war. I think he’s highlighting the importance of telling a story even if some tell you not to.