Father of the Year Award goes to...

Like most of Ernest Hemingway's works, In Our Time is rich with masculine ideals. Throughout the novel, men are presented as rough, boisterous, and matter-of-fact individuals, especially when in the company of other men. What makes this dynamic interesting, however, is the impact of fathers on their sons. In the case of Nick Adams, the audience gets to track his coming of age and how he handles different situations, especially as a result of his father. Additionally, the occasional cameo of other narrators displays similar themes of boyish dependence turned masculine independence.

In the story "Indian Camp," the audience meets Nick for the first time. Then a young boy, we learn that he is accompanying his father on a sort of take-your-child-to-work day. Even though we are thrown into this story in media res, there are signs that Nick is just as clueless as us. Like any child, he displays an interest in what they are doing and where they are going. The father answers all his questions, but in a brisk and factual tone. Soon, the two of them enter the hut of an Indian family, where a woman is in extreme labor. At this point it becomes clear that Nick's father is a doctor who is going to help her give birth. However, this isn't without giving Nick some life lessons first. Nick, who sees how much pain the screaming woman is, asks his father if he can give her anything for the pain. "'No, I don't have any anesthetic,' his father said, 'But her screams are not important. I do not hear them because they are not important'" (16). Here, it is clear that Nick's father wants him to distance himself from human feelings and emotions, instead focusing on everything objectively.

Maybe ten years later, Nick is a young man, somewhat more mature yet still struggling with himself and his relationships. Indeed, he finds himself breaking off a relationship with Marjorie in "The End of Something," and the following story "The Three-Day Blow" shows him unwinding with his friend Bill. The two start drinking, clearly trying to one-up each other yet still maintain a mature facade. The conversation moves from sports to girls to books, and eventually lands on fathers. It turns out they have very different fathers, with Nick's father being an upright (though boring) doctor, and Bill's father being "'a little wild sometimes'" (44). A painter, he spends most of his days drinking and hunting, two traits that Hemingway is especially fond of when it comes to ideal masculinity. Nick's father, on the other hand, has "'never taken a drink in his life'" (44). Even though the two boys don't express their opinions past a few words, it's clear that Bill's father is the cooler of the two.

Finally, in the story "My Old Man," a young boy by the name of Joe talks amiably about his father. Throughout the plot, however, it becomes clear that his old man has done some questionable things, and the originally innocent narrator gets disillusioned by the end of the story. In this case, Hemingway is trying to make a point about the naiveté of outsiders, especially when it comes to the war. Joe represents the masses of America, whereas his old man is the war. At first, the narrator talks very highly of his father, saying things like, "when my old man grinned, nobody could help but grin too" (115). However, as the story progresses, Joe finds himself in the middle of one of his father's gambling deals gone bad. He is told to run off just as the audience is about to figure out what all the angry men are talking about, similar to how the government tried to shift the attention of the American people away from problems abroad. By the end, though, Joe learns his old man's intentions and he gets a more jaded view of the world. "Of course I knew it was funny all the time. But my old man saying that right out like that sure took the kick all out of it for me and I didn't get the real kick back again ever" (124).

Interestingly, the chapter preceding "My Old Man," Chapter XIII, provides a glimpse into a different father dynamic. In it, the narrator is searching for Luis, a boy who is supposed to bullfight later that day. Instead of getting ready, however, Luis is out in the streets partying, dancing, and getting drunk. A woman by the name of Maera tells the narrator to go down and fetch him, and the narrator tries to. Upon trying to grab his attention and lead him back to the hotel, Luis continues dancing and says, "Oh, leave me alone. You're not my father" (113). Here, Hemingway is enforcing the concept of fathers as the ultimate authority figures. Because Luis is "an ignorant Mexican savage," as the narrator says to Maera, it can be inferred that they aren't actually related. Hemingway is also portraying Luis as the extreme, reckless version of masculinity, as the other men in the story show at least some discipline.

Overall, Ernest Hemingway is very big on men and their expected actions in social situations. In "Indian Camp," we see a man teaching his son about the ways of life, emphasizing a lack of compassion when it comes to dealing with problems. Once the son has grown up, though, he develops a more critical view of his father, admitting that his father isn't as manly as his friend's. In "My Old Man," Hemingway takes a slightly different approach to addressing masculinity by relating it back to the current events of the time. He is indirectly criticizing America for acting too childish, like Joe, and failing to see the real problems behind the idealistic facade of the war. Finally, an interstitial chapter underlines all these issues by confirming the importance of fathers.