Chapter I of In Our Time: Origins, Omissions, and Arrangement

Abstract:Chapter I of In Our Time, while only 112 words in length, is deceptively complex in its presentation as well as in its depth of emotion. The story is, like others in the collection, a story of war’s effects upon the psyches of individuals caught within its patriotic jingoism and destructive violence. In the story, Ernest Hemingway explores what has come to be called post-traumatic stress disorder through the shocked sensibilities of a French soldier dealing with his memories of the 1915 Second Battle of Champagne. Through his use of the ice-berg theory of omission and a particularized arrangement of sentences, Hemingway presents the cauterized emotions of his narrator.