War, Gender, and Ernest Hemingway

Arguing that gender issues and war trauma are inextricably connected in Hemingway’s canon, Vernon opposes scholarship dividing gender and war in “Big Two-Hearted River.” Explains that for a man to suppress war in his mind, he must suppress the familial social ties that motivate him to fight. Vernon draws on A Farewell to Arms to show how war also complicates a man’s gender identity by emasculating and pacifying his agency. Finally, Vernon contends that “Cross-Country Snow” and “An Alpine Idyll” are best understood as transient respites from both war and social obligations