Aspects of Initiation in Hemin

This paper will be concerned with the question whether - and if so, why - Hemingway′s Nick Adams stories can be regarded as stories of initiation. As the above citation shows, the possibility of reading Hemingway′s short fiction as stories of initiation is supported in literary theory. There are, however, some controversies on this topic, which can be seen in the essay "What is an Initiation Story?" by Mordecai Marcus (1976), for example.

The following report will deal with three selected short stories by Ernest Hemingway focussing on the protagonist Nick Adams, namely ,,Indian Camp", ,,The Battler" and ,,Fathers and Sons". These stories have been selected due to the fact that they give a representative overlook on different chapters of life of the protagonist, which are childhood, adolescence and maturity. Therefore, they are suitable for investigation of constituents and characteristics of stories of initiation. Furthermore, their different topics as well as arrangements offer a broad range of material for investigation.

Following Freese′s suggestions for a catalogue of questions to analyze stories of initiation (Freese 103), one can certainly mostly guess about the answers concerning single Hemingway stories. Generally, one can state that Hemingway does not evaluate the initiatory processes directly, but prefers open endings: the outcome of the initiations is not stated in the stories themselves. By reading the Nick Adams stories as matching parts of a single story, however, one can identify certain outcomes of the several initiatory experiences the protagonist makes. Thus, Young′s statement that a "typical Nick Adams story is of an initiation, is the telling of an event which is violent or evil, or both, or at the very least is the description of an incident which brings the boy into contact with something that is perplexing and unpleasant" (96), can be regarded as true, even if the results of these initiatory experiences are not explicitly mentioned.

2.2.3 The aspect of effect in stories of initiation

Just in this moment of reminiscence, Nick′s son - previously "asleep on the seat by his side" (FS 151) - suddenly addresses his father. His question ""What was it like, Papa, when you were a little boy and used to hunt with the Indians?"" (FS 160) indicates a kind of mental connection between the two of them, as it takes up the thoughts Nick is hanging on to. Here, the doubled structure of the father-and-son-conflict becomes the central aspect of the story, as Nick "is both a son, preoccupied with memories of his dead father, and a father, driving with his own son, committing some of the same mistakes that his father committed." (Boutelle 141f). In his answers to the child′s questions about the Indians, Nick seems to construct "an abridged, bowdlerized, and age-appropriate story" (Beegel 95) and is definitely evasive: ""But tell me what they were like." "They were Ojibways," Nick said. "And they were very nice." "But what were they like to be with?" "It′s hard to say," Nick Adams said."" (FS 160). Nick is not able to tell his son about his "sole memory of joy unalloyed" (Beegel 96) with the Indians, about the girl who "did first what no one has ever done better" (FS 160), he "does not tell the boy "how things are" with the Indians, nor does he disillusion the child when he asks, "Will I ever live with them?"" (Beegel 97). Nick, one can say, does not confront his son with the harsh facts of life like his own father did with him (cf. chapter 3.1), he does not force his sons initiation.

Some topics in this essay:
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