In Another Country quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary movement best describes "In Another Country"?

   • Correct answer: Modernism
   • Realism
   • Romanticism
   • Naturalism
   • Gothic Horror

   Modernism fits perfectly: Hemingway's minimalist prose, fragmented sense of meaning after WWI, disillusioned characters, and the iceberg theory of purposeful omission are all hallmarks of the Modernist movement.

   Read the passage
2. 2

   Question 2. Why does the narrator feel separated from the decorated Italian soldiers?

   • He proved his valor by leading a charge against Austrian forces
   • He was drafted against his will and resents being in the war
   • Correct answer: He received his medals for being American, not for acts of bravery
   • He volunteered to serve alongside the Italian troops as an act of solidarity

   The narrator's medals were awarded because he was an American, not for acts of genuine valor. When the Italian officers read his citation and realize this, their manner changes. The narrator himself admits he is "not a hawk" like the others and fears he never would have proved courageous.

   Read the passage
3. 3

   Question 3. Who is the major, and what defines him before the story's emotional climax?

   • An Italian infantryman who lost his sight protecting his regiment in battle
   • Correct answer: A former champion fencer whose hand was shriveled to the size of a baby's by a war wound
   • A military doctor who treats the soldiers while secretly doubting his own methods
   • A young officer who was wounded on his very first day at the Italian front

   The major was the greatest fencer in Italy before the war. A war wound shriveled his hand to the size of a baby's. He is defined by dignity, discipline, and skepticism — he corrects the narrator's Italian grammar and refuses to believe in the machines.

   Read the passage
4. 4

   Question 4. What sport had the major been champion of before the war?

   • Correct answer: Fencing
   • Boxing
   • Swimming
   • Shooting

   The major was the greatest fencer in Italy. A war wound left his hand shriveled to the size of a baby's hand — ending his fencing career permanently.

   Read the passage
5. 5

   Question 5. What do the rehabilitation machines symbolize in the story?

   • The machines were proven effective in treating wounded soldiers from earlier conflicts
   • The machines give the soldiers a daily purpose and a reason to leave their quarters
   • The machines restore the soldiers' strength so they can return to active duty
   • Correct answer: The machines represent a false promise of restoration that modern technology cannot deliver

   The machines symbolize the hollow promise of technology to heal what war has broken. The doctor's proof photographs depict an industrial accident, not a war wound — the major spots this immediately. The soldiers are effectively guinea pigs testing an unproven "theory, like another." The machines represent broader modernist disillusionment: systems that claim to restore wholeness but cannot heal profound physical or emotional damage.

   Read the passage
6. 6

   Question 6. What does "Invalided out" mean in this story?

   • Dishonorably discharged for cowardice under fire
   • Promoted to a non-combat role due to distinguished service
   • Correct answer: Discharged from military service due to injury or illness
   • Transferred to a different unit after losing the ability to fight

   "Invalided out" means to be discharged from military service because of a wound or illness that makes continued service impossible. The major waited until he was "definitely invalided out of the war" before marrying — he thought he had made himself safe first.

   Read the passage
7. 7

   Question 7. What is the central theme of "In Another Country"?

   • Correct answer: Isolation and alienation — characters are cut off from each other and from ordinary life by war, nationality, and grief
   • The glory of sacrifice — soldiers find meaning and camaraderie through their shared suffering on the battlefield
   • The healing power of modern medicine — technology gradually restores what the war has taken from the wounded men
   • National pride and duty — the Italian officers inspire the narrator to find courage through their example

   The central theme is isolation and alienation. The narrator is triply isolated: as an American in Italy, as someone who earned medals by accident, and as a young man who cannot grasp the major's grief. The major, after his wife's death, enters the deepest isolation of all — inconsolable loss. Shared suffering does not automatically create connection.

   Read the passage
8. 8

   Question 8. What is the significance of the title "In Another Country"?

   • Italy's political neutrality, which kept it separate from the main theaters of the war
   • The narrator's physical distance from the front lines during his recovery in Milan
   • Correct answer: Multiple layers of displacement — geographic, moral, emotional, and the country of grief
   • The contrast between Italy's ancient culture and the modern industrial warfare surrounding it

   The title works on multiple levels. The narrator is literally in Italy, far from home. But the wounded soldiers inhabit another country of disability, separated from healthy civilians. The narrator exists in yet another country from the truly brave Italian officers. And the major, after his wife's death, enters the most isolated country of all — inconsolable grief. The title may also echo a Christopher Marlowe line about irrecoverable loss that Hemingway used as an epigraph.

   Read the passage
9. 9

   Question 9. In which publication was "In Another Country" first published in 1927?

   • Scribner's Weekly
   • Correct answer: Scribner's Magazine
   • The Atlantic Monthly
   • The Saturday Evening Post

   The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in April 1927, then collected in Men Without Women later that year.

   Read the passage
10. 10

    Question 10. How does Hemingway's "iceberg theory" operate in this story?

    • Using elaborate flashback sequences to reveal a character's traumatic past experiences
    • Correct answer: Conveying deep emotion through observable surface details while leaving inner states unstated
    • Layering multiple narrators so that no single perspective can be trusted by the reader
    • Describing violence and death with graphic precision to force readers to confront war's horror

    The iceberg theory means showing only the surface while leaving the deeper content unstated. The story never depicts a battle, never describes the major's marriage, and never has the narrator explicitly state his fear. Instead, devastation is conveyed through observable details — the major slapping his withered hand against his thigh, walking out in tears while "carrying himself straight and soldierly," returning with a black mourning band. What is left unsaid carries far more power than any direct statement.

    Read the passage
11. 11

    Question 11. Why does the major insist that "a man must not marry"?

    • He believes the narrator is too young and immature to understand the responsibilities of marriage
    • He has always disapproved of soldiers forming romantic attachments during wartime service
    • He is jealous of the narrator's romantic prospects after losing his own ability to attract a partner
    • Correct answer: His young wife has just died of pneumonia, and he believed waiting until after the war would protect him from loss

    The major's warning comes from raw grief — his young wife has just died of pneumonia. He had waited until he was "definitely invalided out of the war" to marry, believing he had protected himself by surviving combat first. Her sudden death proves that no caution can shield a person from devastating loss. His anger at the narrator is not cruelty but a desperate warning: the deepest suffering comes not from war wounds but from loving someone who can be taken away.

    Read the passage
12. 12

    Question 12. What does "hawk" mean in the narrator's self-assessment?

    • Correct answer: A soldier of proven courage and genuine battlefield valor
    • An officer who aggressively advocates for more dangerous combat missions
    • Someone who profits from the war by selling supplies to both sides
    • A sharp-eyed scout who observes enemy movements from a distance

    The narrator describes the three decorated Milanese officers as "hunting-hawks" and admits he is "not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted." In this context, a hawk represents a soldier of genuine, proven courage — someone who has truly faced danger and acted bravely, not merely received medals for being in the right place.

    Read the passage
13. 13

    Question 13. How is the narrator separated from the Italian officers?

    • Correct answer: By nationality, by how medals were earned, and by self-doubt about his own courage
    • By rank, age, and the severity of their respective physical injuries from combat
    • By language, with the Italian officers refusing to communicate with the American
    • By political beliefs, with the Italians supporting the war and the narrator opposing it

    The narrator is separated on three levels: as an American in Italy (national outsider), his medals were earned because he was American rather than for valor (moral gap), and he confesses to lying in bed imagining himself performing the brave deeds the Italians actually did. He shares their wounds but not their proven courage — a distinction he is painfully aware of.

    Read the passage
14. 14

    Question 14. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The narrator is an American soldier recovering from a knee wound in Milan.

      Happened

      The narrator — widely believed to be Nick Adams — is an American wounded in the knee, undergoing daily rehabilitation at a hospital in Milan.

    • The major's hand was wounded in the same battle where the narrator was hit.

      Didn't happen

      The story does not connect their wounds to the same battle. The major's hand was shriveled by a war wound that ended his fencing career; the narrator was shot in the knee.

    • The major corrects the narrator's Italian grammar during their sessions.

      Happened

      The major, a well-educated former champion, takes it upon himself to correct the narrator's Italian — a detail that reveals his precision and dignity even in reduced circumstances.

    • The doctor proves the machines work by showing photographs of soldiers who recovered.

      Didn't happen

      The doctor's before-and-after photographs are from an industrial accident, not a war wound — a fact the major immediately notices, further undermining the machines' credibility.

    • The major waited until after the war before he married his young wife.

      Happened

      The major tells the narrator he waited until he was "definitely invalided out of the war" to marry, believing this would protect him. Her death from pneumonia proves the futility of such caution.

    • The major's wife dies from injuries sustained in an air raid on Milan.

      Didn't happen

      The major's wife dies of pneumonia — a civilian illness, not a war wound. The cruelest irony is that the major survived combat only to lose her to an ordinary disease.

    • The narrator believes he would have proven himself courageous under fire.

      Didn't happen

      The narrator honestly doubts his own courage. He admits lying in bed imagining himself performing the brave deeds the Italians actually did, knowing he cannot be sure he would have acted as they did.

    • The story takes place in the autumn and winter in Milan.

      Happened

      Hemingway sets the story as autumn turns to winter in Milan — the cold, darkening setting mirrors the soldiers' inner desolation, functioning as pathetic fallacy.

    • The major returns to the hospital after his wife's death wearing a black mourning band.

      Happened

      After the emotional outburst, the major returns wearing a black mourning band on his sleeve — a formal, restrained sign of grief that underscores the story's iceberg method.

    • Dead game animals hanging in shop windows appear in the story as background detail.

      Happened

      On the walk to the hospital, the narrator passes game hanging in shop windows. These dead animals mirror the soldiers' own suspended, lifeless state — one of Hemingway's key symbolic details.

    Read the passage
15. 15

    Question 15. What do the dead game animals hanging in shop windows symbolize?

    • The vitality of Italian civilian life continuing normally despite the war raging nearby
    • The harsh Italian winter setting, establishing the cold and unforgiving atmosphere
    • Correct answer: The soldiers themselves — lives suspended, robbed of their natural purpose by the war
    • The abundance of food and comfort available to civilians while soldiers go without

    The dead animals hanging in shop windows on the walk to the hospital mirror the soldiers' own condition — lives suspended, removed from their natural state, displayed but purposeless. Like the animals, the soldiers have been taken out of the flow of normal existence. It is one of Hemingway's quietly devastating symbolic images.

    Read the passage
16. 16

    Question 16. In which collection was "In Another Country" published, and why is the collection's title significant?

    • A Farewell to Arms — Hemingway's novel about the Italian front and a wounded American soldier
    • Correct answer: Men Without Women — a 1927 collection about men cut off from women by war, choice, or circumstance
    • The Sun Also Rises — a novel of the Lost Generation adrift in post-war Europe
    • In Our Time — Hemingway's debut collection featuring the recurring Nick Adams character

    The story appeared in Men Without Women (1927). The collection's title captures its dominant theme — men cut off from women by war, choice, or circumstance. The major's loss of his wife epitomizes this: even when the connection existed, the war ultimately severed it. The collection as a whole explores what men lose when women are absent from their lives.

    Read the passage
17. 17

    Question 17. How does the major embody Hemingway's concept of "grace under pressure"?

    • He refuses to use the machines at all, arguing that technology cannot restore human dignity
    • He encourages the narrator to abandon his fear of death and embrace military glory
    • He breaks down completely after his wife's death and stops coming to the hospital
    • Correct answer: He expresses devastating grief while still carrying himself with military bearing and returning to duty

    The major is a "code hero" — he feels devastation fully but refuses to collapse entirely. After his wife's death, he chokes up and cries, but still carries himself "straight and soldierly." He leaves the hospital momentarily, but returns. His grief is genuine and visible, yet he maintains dignity. Hemingway's "grace under pressure" means facing the worst without abandoning self-control or discipline.

    Read the passage
18. 18

    Question 18. Which Hemingway novel also draws on his experiences on the Italian front in WWI?

    • Of Mice and Men
    • The Old Man and the Sea
    • Correct answer: A Farewell to Arms
    • For Whom the Bell Tolls

    A Farewell to Arms (1929) is Hemingway's novel set on the Italian front during WWI, featuring an American ambulance driver, just as "In Another Country" does — both works draw from his own 1918 wounding near Fossalta di Piave.

    Read the passage
19. 19

    Question 19. How does the seasonal setting function as pathetic fallacy in the story?

    • Correct answer: Autumn turning to winter — cold, darkening days mirror the soldiers' inner desolation and loss of hope
    • Early spring — new growth and warming temperatures suggest that recovery is genuinely possible
    • High summer — the heat and brightness contrast with the soldiers' inner darkness and suffering
    • Late winter into spring — the gradually lightening days reflect the major's slow acceptance of his wife's death

    The story is set in autumn turning to winter in Milan — cold, foggy days that grow progressively darker. This is pathetic fallacy: the external environment mirrors the characters' inner states. The darkening season reflects the soldiers' deepening desolation, the fading promise of the machines, and the major's coming grief. Hemingway uses setting as emotional weather rather than mere backdrop.

    Read the passage