Ernest Hemingway: A Pursuit Race

Résumé du document

‘A Pursuit Race' is a short story in Ernest Hemingway's ‘Men Without Women' which is narrated from an omniscient point of view and which incorporates more precisely a heterodiegetic narrator. Here, the author knows everything and reveals to us the motivations, thoughts and feelings, details about the characters.

The story takes place at Kansas City on the Pacific coast. William Campbell, an old man who works for the burlesque show, and Mr Turner, the manager of this burlesque show, are the two protagonists. More exactly, the scene takes place within William's bedroom. Whilst this former is lying in bed, Mr Turner comes in and then they start to talk.

This story, through a dialogue and some external descriptions, explains the despair of William who assumes an increasingly pitiful characteristic through the text because of his actions but especially his behavior.

Besides, his state of mind leads him to have a particular elocution which is full of metaphors and in this way, William plays with his interlocutor. Then, with positive and negative appreciations about the two protagonists, we will see how Hemingway gradually modifies our perception over the course of the story.

Extraits

[...] Ernest Hemingway: A Pursuit Race Pursuit Race' is a short story of Ernest Hemingway's book Without Women' which is narrated with an omniscient point of view and which incorporate more precisely a heterodiegetic narrator. Then, the author knows everything and reveals us the motivations, thoughts and feelings, informations about the characters. The story takes place at Kansas City on the Pacific coast. William Campbell, an advance man who works for the burlesque show, and Mr Turner, the manager of this burlesque show, are the two protagonists. [...]

[...] Besides, he gives him a great advice : ought to stop off here, Billy, and take a cure' (p.113), and he offers his assistance : ‘I'll fix it up if you want to do it.' (p.113). However, William's response is pointed and bitter : don't want to take a cure ( ) I don't want to take a cure at all. I am perfectly happy. All my life I have been perfectly happy.' (p.113-114). The repetition of ‘perfectly happy' highlights William's emotional disturb and the duration of his suffering. Moreover, the advance man, who seems to be pessimistic, proclaims : ( ) They haven't got a cure for anything.' (p.115). [...]

[...] Also, he offers Mr Turner a drink who refuses but William takes one from the bottle and he appears as a stubborn man with his foursquare refusal and the fact that he continues to drink in front of his manager. At this moment, Hemingway now shifts the focus to Mr Turner, as the manager watches William lying on the bed. We are reminded again that Mr Turner is a busy man, that he has ‘been in this room much longer than he should have been, he had many things to do' (p115). We learn too that the manager has a ‘horror of drugs' (p.115) and even though he deals every day with people who use them. [...]

[...] Later, when Mr Turner insists on the fact that William is drunk, this one answers to him : have a surprise for you. I'm not drunk. I'm hopped to the eyes' (p.114). When Turner does not believe him, William pulls right sleeve of his pajama jacket under the sheet' (p.114) to reveal the ‘tiny dark blue punctures' (p.114) on his forearm. In this passage, we can imagine the deep hopelessness of William who uses not only alcohol but drugs like heroin. Finally, our speculations are reinforced with Mr Turner's comment about the ‘jam' (p.115) that William got. [...]

[...] This sheet represents a kind of harbor for him. Also, the narrator who enter into the mind of William says about him that found he liked to talk through a sheet' (p.113) that shows William's strange state of mind. Moreover, he uses the sheet to hide himself : pulled the sheet up over his face again' (p.113). In addition, the sheet is linked with the perception that the reader could have about William behavior. This is why, William seems to be sick and to suffer of emotional amplification. [...]