For whom the bell tolls

“Up in Michigan,” one of Hemingway’s earliest stories, it is a tale of a romantic encounter and the disillusionment the results from it. Liz obsessed with Jim, the town blacksmith, has a lot words and behaving as tries to tempt he to have sex with her. The struggle which Liz Coates faces between her sexual attraction to Jim Gilmore and her naïve inexperience is embodied in the gloomy and uninviting setting.

Liz’s words and action are obsessed or tempts Jim. She works at the kitchen door and she likes everything about him from his moustache to his white teeth. For example, in the third paragraph of the story, Hemingway describes Liz’s feelings about Jim almost entirely using the phrase “she liked it”: “She liked it about his mustache. She liked it about how white his teeth were when he smiled.” This not only emphasizes the fact that Liz is a simple, unsophisticated girl, but also drives home the degree to which Liz is obsessed with Jim. She barely thinks about anything else, and it seems there is nothing she doesn’t like about him. What’s more, Liz realized it was a cold morning and she cares about Jim so she takes off her coat and covers Jim with it. She“ took off her coat and leaned over and covered him with it. She tucked it around him neatly and carefully.” Obviously, it is not all about Jim’s fault because Liz’s words and action try to tempt Jim.

Even Liz is a naïve girl, she should have enough common sense. The setting provides that Liz has entered a cold new world. Mist is used in the last paragraph of the story. This could represent Liz’s clouded understanding of what happened; however, although she did not fully comprehend what had happened to her, Liz was enshrouded by the reality of the sexual world. This stance is supported by narration: “ she walked across the dock and up the steep sandy road to go to bed”. As much confusion and distress sex may have caused Liz, she was ready to accept it into her life. Instead of prolonging her distress over Jim, she went home to bed. As Liz protects Jim from the cold mist of the bay with her coat, she also reaffirms her fascination with the masculine setting from which he comes and, in small part, he has exposed to her. Conversely, Jim remains in the warehouse asleep and content.

Jim lies unconscious. On the dock as if he now has the role of the dead buck, just emphasizes Liz coming to consciousness about her own life. She rises from the battlefield like a heroine; at first she shakes Jim in the fainting hope that there might be a way to get back. ("…shook him once more just to make sure"), but then realizing her fate she stoically takes of her coat and as an imitation of the Pieta-figure puts her coat over her past life, that in the figure of the drunken Jim, has passed away.

From Liz’s point of view, and this fact make the story notable in the Hemingway canon. Liz falls partially into the first category; her behavior is naïve, lovelorn and somewhat passive, but she is nevertheless a sympathetic character. Because of Hemingway’s extensive narration from her point of view, it takes the journey from infatuation to disillusionment with her. Liz is disillusioned about love and sex following her experience with Jim. After an extended period of complete and utter obsession with Jim, Liz finally has the chance to be physically intimate with him, but the encounter turns into a rough and unpleasant experience. The object of her obsession takes her virginity and then falls dead asleep as if nothing had happened. The character of Liz a decidedly sympathetic cast but Jim is also innocent and he didn’t do anything wrong.

Men Is Not Always Wrong