The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Hemingway and Women at the Front: Blowing Bridges in The Fifth Column, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Other Works: Difference between revisions
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Jane briefly thinks that what she herself wants is marriage to Philip, who suddenly expresses admiration for her independence and professionalism as a war correspondent. But soon he says, “I can’t have you going to the front any more. . . [because] you’re mine now.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=60}} He sabotages her work by arranging for her to sleep through an attack she is to report, and he makes plans to send her to his family home in England. This last is too much for Jane. She is appalled by his description of the life his mother and sister lead there—notably, not because she finds it trivial, but rather because the riding and hunting, the bee-keeping and cow-tending, the war committees and the uniformed “land army” all require a different sort of courage and a different set of talents than she possesses.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=76}} She is horrified to discover, for example, that there are no “field dressing station[s]” at fox hunts, and she bewails the fact that “there’s no one to pick up the wounded.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=69, 64}} Imagining a future where she will be “kicked by horses and stung by bees and finally die of mastitis from a cow,” she envies Annabelle whom she envisions “in a lovely dry dug-out somewhere.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=73, 69}} Jane changes her mind about marrying Philip and lights out for the territory—to Burma, in fact, with Annabelle, to report on the war front there. | Jane briefly thinks that what she herself wants is marriage to Philip, who suddenly expresses admiration for her independence and professionalism as a war correspondent. But soon he says, “I can’t have you going to the front any more. . . [because] you’re mine now.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=60}} He sabotages her work by arranging for her to sleep through an attack she is to report, and he makes plans to send her to his family home in England. This last is too much for Jane. She is appalled by his description of the life his mother and sister lead there—notably, not because she finds it trivial, but rather because the riding and hunting, the bee-keeping and cow-tending, the war committees and the uniformed “land army” all require a different sort of courage and a different set of talents than she possesses.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=76}} She is horrified to discover, for example, that there are no “field dressing station[s]” at fox hunts, and she bewails the fact that “there’s no one to pick up the wounded.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=69, 64}} Imagining a future where she will be “kicked by horses and stung by bees and finally die of mastitis from a cow,” she envies Annabelle whom she envisions “in a lovely dry dug-out somewhere.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=73, 69}} Jane changes her mind about marrying Philip and lights out for the territory—to Burma, in fact, with Annabelle, to report on the war front there. | ||
Annabelle does indeed plan to continue her war correspondence, but she hopes to do so with Joe Rogers, who has proclaimed not only his continuing love for her but also a new attitude of respect for her work: “No other girl would have dared to fly that mission You’re everything. You’re pretty and funny and brave. I think being so brave is one of the things I’m proudest of.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=67}} He promises never again to steal her stories as he did during their brief marriage. “He said he did it because he loved me so much he couldn’t bear to have me in danger,” Annabelle tells Jane, but “it turned out he married me to silence the opposition.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=19}} Joe now asserts, “Nothing means anything without you,” and he promises never to interfere in her work again.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=67}} Annabelle imagines a future with this “beautiful, funny, fascinating man” in which they will cover wars together in happy comradeship,{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=20}} having learned that marriage is “too dangerous” and that “you risk ruining everything with marriage.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=69}} But Annabelle discovers that Joe has not {{pg|399|400}} changed when he steals her trip to Poland. The theft is bad enough, but his condescending explanation is still more infuriating: “Hawkins sent for you, but it’s too dangerous. I love you too much. It doesn’t matter for a man. P.S. Back tomorrow.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=73}} Annabelle’s earlier comment, “If there’s anything I really loathe, it’s a woman protector,” resonates for she senses personal motivations beneath this seemingly generous sentiment.{{sfn|Gellhorn | Annabelle does indeed plan to continue her war correspondence, but she hopes to do so with Joe Rogers, who has proclaimed not only his continuing love for her but also a new attitude of respect for her work: “No other girl would have dared to fly that mission You’re everything. You’re pretty and funny and brave. I think being so brave is one of the things I’m proudest of.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=67}} He promises never again to steal her stories as he did during their brief marriage. “He said he did it because he loved me so much he couldn’t bear to have me in danger,” Annabelle tells Jane, but “it turned out he married me to silence the opposition.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=19}} Joe now asserts, “Nothing means anything without you,” and he promises never to interfere in her work again.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=67}} Annabelle imagines a future with this “beautiful, funny, fascinating man” in which they will cover wars together in happy comradeship,{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=20}} having learned that marriage is “too dangerous” and that “you risk ruining everything with marriage.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=69}} But Annabelle discovers that Joe has not {{pg|399|400}} changed when he steals her trip to Poland. The theft is bad enough, but his condescending explanation is still more infuriating: “Hawkins sent for you, but it’s too dangerous. I love you too much. It doesn’t matter for a man. P.S. Back tomorrow.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=73}} Annabelle’s earlier comment, “If there’s anything I really loathe, it’s a woman protector,” resonates for she senses personal motivations beneath this seemingly generous sentiment.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=25}} Moreover, the same sentiment is expressed by Philip, as one of the male correspondents tells her: “You’ve got to be more tolerant, Annabelle. The poor guy’s been away from England for three years, fighting to protect womankind from the horrors of war. And then the womankind walks in on him. He might as well have spared himself the trouble. You can see it would upset him for a while.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=25}} | ||
Annabelle is terribly hurt by Joe’s betrayal, but she vows not “to let any worthless man ruin [her] job,”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=74}} and she is cheered at the prospect of covering the war in Burma: “It sounds too terrible. Those poor men, and no one to tell what they’re doing. Forgotten Army. How dare people treat them like that”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=75}} Annabelle proves herself “still out to save the world,” as Jane had earlier described her, claiming, “We have to write, Jane. The people who fight can’t. It’s our job. Our duty, really.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=19, 18}} So Annabelle and Jane go off to yet another war front, finding it “lovely to be at the same war” but regretting that the men they love cannot somehow tolerate sharing the ex- perience with them.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=23}} Hemingway’s Philip Rawlings had criticized Dorothy, saying that “the first thing an American woman does is try to get the man she’s interested in to give up something,”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=24}} but in ''Love Goes to Press'' it is the men who try to change the women. As Sandra Spanier notes in her Afterword, ''"Love Goes to Press'' portrays men and women in love and at war from a distinctly female point of view, a lens through which we rarely have had the opportunity in American literature to view any war. And in this wartime drama, the European Theater of Operations is literally that— the stage set for the main action: the War between the Sexes.”{{sfn|Spanier|1995|p=82}} | Annabelle is terribly hurt by Joe’s betrayal, but she vows not “to let any worthless man ruin [her] job,”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=74}} and she is cheered at the prospect of covering the war in Burma: “It sounds too terrible. Those poor men, and no one to tell what they’re doing. Forgotten Army. How dare people treat them like that”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=75}} Annabelle proves herself “still out to save the world,” as Jane had earlier described her, claiming, “We have to write, Jane. The people who fight can’t. It’s our job. Our duty, really.”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=19, 18}} So Annabelle and Jane go off to yet another war front, finding it “lovely to be at the same war” but regretting that the men they love cannot somehow tolerate sharing the ex- perience with them.{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=23}} Hemingway’s Philip Rawlings had criticized Dorothy, saying that “the first thing an American woman does is try to get the man she’s interested in to give up something,”{{sfn|Gellhorn|Cowles|1995|p=24}} but in ''Love Goes to Press'' it is the men who try to change the women. As Sandra Spanier notes in her Afterword, ''"Love Goes to Press'' portrays men and women in love and at war from a distinctly female point of view, a lens through which we rarely have had the opportunity in American literature to view any war. And in this wartime drama, the European Theater of Operations is literally that— the stage set for the main action: the War between the Sexes.”{{sfn|Spanier|1995|p=82}} | ||