The Battler Literature Review Example

“Nick stood up. He was all right. He looked up the track at the lights of the caboose going out of sight around a curve," are the words Ernest Hemingway’s “The Battler” begins with. From the first sentences, it becomes apparent who is the main character of "The Battler.” Moreover, Nick Adams is a protagonist of a series of Ernest Hemingway stories. For the first time “The Battler” was published in 1925 and it was a part of the collection entitled “In Our Time." In spite of being protagonist, Nick is not the only person this story is about. He is an instrument in author’s hands thanks to which we can see what happens to man who won a lot of fights, but lost the main one.
At the beginning of the story, it is unknown who is Nick. The author just says that there was something happened to him. His knees are stripped and bruise above an eye hurts a lot. Further, it becomes apparent that he gets kicked off from the freight train he was travelling. It is dark outside and Nick wanders along the railway when he sees the fire. He decides to come closer towards it. Near the fire, he meets a man with an exceedingly mutilated face who “looked to be alone." The man, whose name is Ad Francis, tells Nick about his features such as craziness and a unique pulse rate. Finally, Nick realizes that the man he met is a famous boxer. Later another person appears. Nick sees a black man named Bugs. Bugs is very polite and attentive to Nick but when Ad maintains Bugs is crazy too, Bugs doesn’t deny it. A black man invites Nick to eat with them and starts to fry the pieces of ham and the eggs. At some moment, Bugs asks Nick to cut the bread. Ad in turn asks Nick to give him a knife, but Bugs tells Adams not to do it. After the meal Ad loses his temper and starts to shout on Nick blaming him for coming there and eating their food. Ad is going to attack him but finally Bugs hits Ad into the back of the head and Ad loses consciousness. Then Nick learns the story of Ad’s life which Bugs tells him about. It becomes apparent what happened to Ad and what made him a hobo and a madman. The answer is in the story about Ad and his sister who was his manager for the time he was boxing. Then they got married but not long after that she left him. It hurts Ad and then he started to attack people. Finally, that leads him to the prison that is where Bugs met him. After the discharge Ad and Bugs have traveled together. At the end of the story, Bugs asks Nick to leave due to not making Ad upset again. Ultimately Nick goes back to his path and passes out of sight in the dark.
“The Battler” is the story full of different meanings and some of them become clear not at once. The story is all about the fight, the surviving. Nick travels on the freight train, not because of good living and, what's more, a brakeman kicks him off so Nick has to go home on foot. He is bruised and beaten by the life. “He must get to somewhere” the story says but what is somewhere? Where has he been? We don’t even know how old he is and what he looks like. The only word that explains his approximate age is “kid.” Hemingway just tells us Nick is near Chicago. However, maybe it is not important thing. The scene of travelling by freight train also explains the life of those times, some parts of hobo’s lifestyle which also reveals in characters of Ad and Bugs. Nick notices the fire in the woods and he is not afraid to go towards it and even when Nick realizes that there is a stranger sitting near the fire he begins to speak to him. I think it shows how common this situation is for Nick Adams and it also means how similar he and a stranger are.
Ad is older than Nick and his wounds are much more serious. Nevertheless they both are beaten and bruised, mostly by the life. First Nick sees just an ugly man; he doesn’t know why Ad is sitting here and what happened to his face, but I believe that deep in his heart he understands that they look very alike and maybe there is something he should know about Ad, especially, after he realizes Ad was a famous boxer. Nick may see a man who was the best, who was the champion, but who couldn’t overcome his own sorrow. Ad reached his success with brutal force and it is the only way he knew to deal with problems. However, that doesn’t work for dealing with life. Now he is hanging around the world with a black man, Bugs, who takes care about him, keep him far from people because Ad can’t communicate with people anymore. Moreover, it seems like Ad clearly understands his state. Also, even author called him boxer only once and mostly called him “the little man.” So Nick should draw a conclusion looking at Ad, looking at what he became living in that way. “The Battler” tell us about the way happiness can’t be reached.
At the beginning of the meeting, Ad says about his craziness and asks Nick whether he is crazy and Nick denies it. Through the story, we can see that Ad said truth and he really is a madman. His further behavior seems really inadequate. He attacks Nick with offensive words:
"How the hell do you get that way?" came out from under the cap sharply at Nick."Who the hell do you think you are? You're a snotty bastard. You come in here where nobody asks you and eat a man's food and when he asks to borrow a knife you get snotty."He glared at Nick, his face was white and his eyes almost out of sight under the cap."You're a hot sketch. Who the hell asked you to butt in here?"
However, Nick keeps cool and says almost nothing to Ad. He just tries to avoid a conflict stepping back. That is another meaning which can be read in this story. Nick behaves like a mature and smart person that seems to be the opposite of Ad. In my opinion boxer’s past also shows its face when he starts to request to hit him. "Hit me, he moved his head. Try and hit me." It looks like Ad just can’t hit Nick first or maybe he is even afraid of doing this first. It also proves Bugs’ words that Ad was beaten a lot in the past. He is like a ragged dog that was taunted many years ago and now that dog is barking and grinning, trying to provoke the violence – the only thing he was taught.
Another thing about craziness in this story is also another explanation of what it is or what it means. The question about madness is asked in a story for several times. For example, when Ad tells Bugs that Nick has never been crazy, Bugs answers “He's got a lot coming to him.” It probably means that Nick is not crazy just because of his age and the fact he hasn’t seen as much as they have seen yet. Maybe Hemingway tries to say that the life will make crazy everyone in his way, there just must be a time for that. In the story, Bugs is shown as a well-mannered and calm person but who was in a prison for cutting someone. Also, when Ad loses his temper, Bugs hits him. He does it for Ad’s good because he doesn’t want Ad to be more suffered. Bugs is a character through which the fortune of black men is shown. It is no accident that Hemingway uses a word “nigger” and a word “negro.”
As a matter of fact, the Hemingway’s “The Battler” consists many sharp themes and problems. It also shows a lot of aspects of lifestyle of that time. However, it strongly works in this day since Nick Adams has merits which real man must have and the opposite as for Ad. “The Battler” is the story about those who are fighting and those who already understood the life is not that simple.