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== HEMINGWAY AND MAILER: TRAUMA’S TREATMENT IN PRESENTING WWII ==
== HEMINGWAY AND MAILER: TRAUMA’S TREATMENT IN PRESENTING WWII ==


Ernest Hemingway’s ''''Across the River and into the Trees'' (1957){{efn|. Hemingway’s title selection for the work references his desire to explore the effects of war and trauma. The title of the work is a paraphrase of the last words of Civil War Leader Stonewall Jackson,“Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees” (Cooke 485). Hemingway’s paraphrase removes the communal “us” and the restorative “rest.” As such, the title highlights a different subjectivity from Jackson: a subjectivity that in Hemingway does not involve a “you” or an “I.” Instead, this narrative speaks not from the objective you or the subjective I but instead from the space of the abjective.}} and Norman Mailer’s ''The Naked and the Dead'' (1948) illustrate necessary components and adaptations of the exploration of the narrative engagement of the traumas of war into and onto the structures of fiction. Carlos Baker observes that Hemingway’s ARIT projects an “atmosphere” that “was darkened by a strange psychological malaise, as if Ernest were using the pages of his novel as the equivalent of a psychiatrist’s couch” {{sfn|Baker|1969|p=477}}. While Baker—like many Hemingway scholars— is keen to link Hemingway’s second-to-last novel to the author’s personal experiences, Hemingway’s novel does not exist merely as an autobiographical account of trauma.{{efn|Hemingway, in “Battle for Paris,” observes, “during this epoch I was addressed as ‘Captain.’ This is a very low rank to have at the age of forty-five years, and so, in the presence of strangers, they would address me, usually, as ‘Colonel.’ But they were a little upset and worried by my low rank. . . The main highlights of this period that I remember, outside of being scared a number of times, are not publishable at this time. Sometime I would like to be able to write an account of the actions of the colonel both by day and by night. But you cannot write it yet” (By-line 370–371).}}  Instead, Hemingway’s oft-dismissed novel captures the sentiment of a culture affected by the trauma of war in the work’s evolved narrative structure. Baker is partially correct in his observations; however, the atmosphere of the novel is not merely darkened by Hemingway’s personal malaise, so much as the novel presents the dark malaise of a culture attempting to reconcile narratives that speak from the abject position of trauma.
Ernest Hemingway’s ''''Across the River and into the Trees'' (1957){{efn|. Hemingway’s title selection for the work references his desire to explore the effects of war and trauma. The title of the work is a paraphrase of the last words of Civil War Leader Stonewall Jackson, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees” (Cooke 485). Hemingway’s paraphrase removes the communal “us” and the restorative “rest.” As such, the title highlights a different subjectivity from Jackson: a subjectivity that in Hemingway does not involve a “you” or an “I.” Instead, this narrative speaks not from the objective you or the subjective I but instead from the space of the abjective.}} and Norman Mailer’s ''The Naked and the Dead'' (1948) illustrate necessary components and adaptations of the exploration of the narrative engagement of the traumas of war into and onto the structures of fiction. Carlos Baker observes that Hemingway’s ''ARIT'' projects an “atmosphere” that “was darkened by a strange psychological malaise, as if Ernest were using the pages of his novel as the equivalent of a psychiatrist’s couch” {{sfn|Baker|1969|p=477}}. While Baker—like many Hemingway scholars— is keen to link Hemingway’s second-to-last novel to the author’s personal experiences, Hemingway’s novel does not exist merely as an autobiographical account of trauma.{{efn|Hemingway, in “Battle for Paris,” observes, “during this epoch I was addressed as ‘Captain.’ This is a very low rank to have at the age of forty-five years, and so, in the presence of strangers, they would address me, usually, as ‘Colonel.’ But they were a little upset and worried by my low rank. . . The main highlights of this period that I remember, outside of being scared a number of times, are not publishable at this time. Sometime I would like to be able to write an account of the actions of the colonel both by day and by night. But you cannot write it yet” (By-line 370–371).}}  Instead, Hemingway’s oft-dismissed novel captures the sentiment of a culture affected by the trauma of war in the work’s evolved narrative structure. Baker is partially correct in his observations; however, the atmosphere of the novel is not merely darkened by Hemingway’s personal malaise, so much as the novel presents the dark malaise of a culture attempting to reconcile narratives that speak from the abject position of trauma.


Mailer’s ''NAD'' is the author’s first novel, and the reviews—unlike the reviews for Hemingway’s second-to-last-novel ''ARIT''—refer to Mailer’s novel as successful at its attempt of providing commentary on the war; in fact, reviewers deemed it “the best novel yet about World War II.” Mailer’s work captures the experiences of war in a non-romantic fashion with its focus on the disunity surrounding the trauma of war in the structure of the narrative. The narrative disunity captured and implemented in the structure of both Mailer’s and Hemingway’s WW II novels involve a point of view that differs from the prior structures of war fiction. In the aftermath of the Second World War, American fiction—illustrated in ''ARIT'' {{efn|In ARIT, Hemingway opens the novel by presenting Colonel Richard Cantwell’s memories that occur in the past. These moments appear early in the narrative as an interior representation of an objective self. Cantwell remembers, “That was the day before yesterday. Yesterday, he had driven down from Trieste to Venice along the old road . . . he relaxed [and] looked out all this country he had known when he was a boy”(21).Hemingway’s use of a frame device in the novel, according to John Paul Russo, is one that provokes an unsettling, uncanny response (155). The placement of the majority of the novel as focused on Cantwell’s memories give subjective voice to his interior landscape. Thus, Hemingway’s representations of memory and remembering in ARIT imbricate creating a protagonist who differs from Hemingway’s prior heroes. In the novel, Cantwell does not operate objectively nor does he operate subjectively; instead, he encompasses another space that seeks to find understanding through his memories of a lifetime of war trauma.}} and ''NAD''—engages a different narrative point of view involving abjection and drawing on the trauma of war to generate a different structure of narrative.
Mailer’s ''NAD'' is the author’s first novel, and the reviews—unlike the reviews for Hemingway’s second-to-last-novel ''ARIT''—refer to Mailer’s novel as successful at its attempt of providing commentary on the war; in fact, reviewers deemed it “the best novel yet about World War II.” Mailer’s work captures the experiences of war in a non-romantic fashion with its focus on the disunity surrounding the trauma of war in the structure of the narrative. The narrative disunity captured and implemented in the structure of both Mailer’s and Hemingway’s WW II novels involve a point of view that differs from the prior structures of war fiction. In the aftermath of the Second World War, American fiction—illustrated in ''ARIT'' {{efn|In ARIT, Hemingway opens the novel by presenting Colonel Richard Cantwell’s memories that occur in the past. These moments appear early in the narrative as an interior representation of an objective self. Cantwell remembers, “That was the day before yesterday. Yesterday, he had driven down from Trieste to Venice along the old road . . . he relaxed [and] looked out all this country he had known when he was a boy”(21).Hemingway’s use of a frame device in the novel, according to John Paul Russo, is one that provokes an unsettling, uncanny response (155). The placement of the majority of the novel as focused on Cantwell’s memories give subjective voice to his interior landscape. Thus, Hemingway’s representations of memory and remembering in ARIT imbricate creating a protagonist who differs from Hemingway’s prior heroes. In the novel, Cantwell does not operate objectively nor does he operate subjectively; instead, he encompasses another space that seeks to find understanding through his memories of a lifetime of war trauma.}} and ''NAD''—engages a different narrative point of view involving abjection and drawing on the trauma of war to generate a different structure of narrative.
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{{pg| 319 | 320}}
{{pg| 319 | 320}}


War II, his writing—in content and structure—no longer focuses only on presenting the arithmetic—the subjects and objects of his stories—or the geometry—shapes and senses evoked by his stories—or the algebra— equations and consequences apparent in the themes of his stories. Hemingway asserts, in a 1950 interview with Harvey Breit concerning the narrative construction of ARIT, that "I have moved through arithmetic, through plane geometry and algebra, and now I am in calculus” {{sfn|Talk|1950|p=12}}. Hemingway’s focus on crafting a text using a narrative calculus is not just about treating or representing an inner reconciliation to the outer experience of trauma in the fiction. Instead, the emphasis is on the play between the inner and the outer effects as a result of trauma on the structure of the narrative. As calculus is the study of change, of space, and of time, Hemingway draws attention to the manner in which change is represented in the structure of a narrative as a result of the experience of trauma in war. Hemingway seeks to capture the illusive element of change, space, and time in his narrative construction mirroring of the experience of trauma in the structure of the narrative.
War II, his writing—in content and structure—no longer focuses only on presenting the arithmetic—the subjects and objects of his stories—or the geometry—shapes and senses evoked by his stories—or the algebra— equations and consequences apparent in the themes of his stories. Hemingway asserts, in a 1950 interview with Harvey Breit concerning the narrative construction of ''ARIT'', that "I have moved through arithmetic, through plane geometry and algebra, and now I am in calculus” {{sfn|Talk|1950|p=12}}. Hemingway’s focus on crafting a text using a narrative calculus is not just about treating or representing an inner reconciliation to the outer experience of trauma in the fiction. Instead, the emphasis is on the play between the inner and the outer effects as a result of trauma on the structure of the narrative. As calculus is the study of change, of space, and of time, Hemingway draws attention to the manner in which change is represented in the structure of a narrative as a result of the experience of trauma in war. Hemingway seeks to capture the illusive element of change, space, and time in his narrative construction mirroring of the experience of trauma in the structure of the narrative.


Calculus, as the study of change and space, operates as a narrative method for structuring the presentation and representation of the trauma of war in fiction. The study of change, which Hemingway engages in the narrative structure of calculus in ARIT and Mailer appropriates in the structuring of NAD, is illustrated through the memory of war and trauma in the narratives. Samuel Hynes observes in ''Soldier’s Tale'' of the effect of war trauma on the construction and structuring of narratives involving the experience of war trauma. Hynes observes that
Calculus, as the study of change and space, operates as a narrative method for structuring the presentation and representation of the trauma of war in fiction. The study of change, which Hemingway engages in the narrative structure of calculus in ''ARIT'' and Mailer appropriates in the structuring of ''NAD'', is illustrated through the memory of war and trauma in the narratives. Samuel Hynes observes in ''Soldier’s Tale'' of the effect of war trauma on the construction and structuring of narratives involving the experience of war trauma. Hynes observes that


<blockquote> there are the inflicted sufferings of war—the wounds, the fears, the hardships . . . there is something else that is done to men by wars: no man goes through a war without being changed by it . . . and though that process will not be explicit in every narrative—not all men are self-conscious or reflective enough for that—it will be there. {{sfn|Hynes|1997|p=3}}</blockquote>
<blockquote> there are the inflicted sufferings of war—the wounds, the fears, the hardships . . . there is something else that is done to men by wars: no man goes through a war without being changed by it . . . and though that process will not be explicit in every narrative—not all men are self-conscious or reflective enough for that—it will be there. {{sfn|Hynes|1997|p=3}}</blockquote>


ARIT utilizes a narrative calculus as Hemingway shows how the experience of war and trauma affect the structure of the narrative as war similarly affects the participant. NAD engages a narrative calculus as Mailer, though the experience of war and trauma, engages and manipulates time, space, and  
''ARIT'' utilizes a narrative calculus as Hemingway shows how the experience of war and trauma affect the structure of the narrative as war similarly affects the participant. ''NAD'' engages a narrative calculus as Mailer, though the experience of war and trauma, engages and manipulates time, space, and  


{{pg| 320 | 321}}
{{pg| 320 | 321}}
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