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Mr. And Mrs. Elliot In Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time

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The short story of “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot” in Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time could be read as a homosexual man attempting to adapt to the stereotypical masculine male figure and through Hemmingway’s paradoxical or ironic meaning underneath the writing, specific deliberate word choice, and use of historical feminine and masculine symbols it becomes clear that this man, Mr. Elliot, is failing to keep up the masculine persona. In the early 20th century, which was around the time Hemingway wrote In Our Time, sexuality was still a question mark. Most people did not know much about any sexuality that differed from heterosexuality and anyone that fit into the category of “other than heterosexual” was furthering away from "normality" (Domotor 2). There …show more content…

Elliot” to display the struggle of Mr. Elliot’s masculinity. Ernest Hemingway was known for the idea of the “iceberg theory,” which “in Hemingway's narrative refers to hard facts staying on the surface, or above water, in the same way as an iceberg” (Domotor 7). By omitting certain words and not deliberately stating every detail, readers are forced to look for subtle meanings underneath the words. Hemingway, “controls the reader's understanding of events by forcing him/her to integrate the importance of the withheld information” (Domotor 8). This is where irony comes to play, the short story begins with “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot tried very hard to have a baby” (Hemingway 85). Domotor suggests that the use of the word “hard” “destroys the image of perseverance and creates that of desperation instead” (Domotor 3). The irony is if the couple was trying “very hard” they would have actually had a baby. If fertility and the ability to conceive are looked as a man displaying his masculinity, by Mr. Elliot trying hard and failing, it means he has failed to embody a characteristic of masculinity. The story continues describing that “They tried as often as Mr. Elliot could stand it” (Hemingway 85). Most of the time the use of irony is meant to comically poke fun at an issue to uncover it true meaning. The fact that Mr. Elliot could not stand it, “it” meaning sexual intercourse with his own wife, is comedic because sexual intercourse to any other heterosexual man is tied to pleasure, but for Mr. Elliot it is like a job he cannot stand. So, Mr. Elliot looks at “reproduction [as] another duty” (Domotor 13), questioning his heterosexuality and masculinity, because it does not seem like he is attracted to his

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