In Another Country

“The narrator of “ In another country” is disillusioned and cynical, having a difficult time retaining his sanity”, argues critic Nagel. In the story, the narrator, Nick Adams, is cynical about the machines which are used to rehabilitate his wounded extremity, and about the of Italian bravery and heroism. At the first paragraph, the narrator opened: “In the fall, the war was always there but we didn’t go to it anymore. It was cold in Milan, and the dark came very early”. Though the tone of the narration, it gave an image of cold, solemn inferring to his glum and dismal mood. It was because of the Great War, besides his physical wounds, his feelings of isolation, dislocation, and even despair were left untreated and would affect him for years to come. Nick was alone in a foreign country and felts isolated. He stated that people on the street hated officers and yelled at him as he walked past. He just associated with three other officers and the boy with the handkerchief over his face. Even in this distinguished company, however, Nick was not fully accepted. He felts inferior to the three other officers with medals as they proved their bravery in battle and he received his medal merely for being an American: “But this was a long time ago, and then we did not any of us know how it was going to be afterward. We only knew then that there was always the war, but that we were not going to it anymore”. This quotation, expressed by Nick, indicates the veterans’ ignorance of how their war experiences would affect them in the long term. All they had to be aware was that they were out of the fighting, wounded and receiving treatment. Moreover, his citation made the Italians change their attitude toward him. And the fact that he was “not going to [the war] anymore” meant he might never get this chance to prove his courage in battle, which gnawed at him. Yet another source of discontent for Nick was the fact that the hospital, with its ineffective physical therapy