“A Very Short Story” Analysis by Muhammad Raza

 “A Very Short Story”  Analysis

“A Very Short Story” by Ernest Hemingway is, as the name implies, a very short story: it is only about 600 words long (shorter than the majority of my peers’ college essays!) and gives the feeling of someone telling you a very brief summary of their life. Still, in this piece of flash fiction, Hemingway teaches us important lessons regarding relationships, war, and, most importantly, love. In 3 minutes' worth of writing, Hemingway teaches us both the power and the irrationality of love and how it can lead us to harm ourselves and those around us.

The story follows an account of a soldier who falls in love with a nurse, tries to build a home for himself and his lover in the U.S., only for the nurse to fall in love with another man in Italy. These brief events highlight how powerful and dangerous love is. The soldier–unnamed for the whole story–sacrifices all he has for the sake of a girl whom he quickly fell in love with. He agrees to her unfair terms of going to the U.S. to get a good job and not seeing anyone else, leaving everything he had before the war to chase this one passion of his. This love clouds his sense and rationality, which he pays for near the end of the story when Luz (the girl) abandons him.

Luz’s situation is parallel to the soldiers' in some ways. After telling the soldier to establish a future for them, she falls in love with an army Major in Italy. This dishonesty towards the soldier is further exacerbated by the fact that she used to write letters professing her love for the soldier while he was fighting, constantly telling him how much she loved him. Still, her feelings for a random man blind her to the fact that she has a partner in the United States waiting for her to come, even to the extent that she downplays this pivotal relationship, referring to it as only “boy-girl” love. 

Ultimately, the story of these young sweethearts highlights how love can be the driving force behind great relationships, as well as an emotion that can strip one away of everything. And while Hemingway explained this point in only 600 words, it is actually a theme that is very much applicable to reality and is seen in a plethora of other pieces of media and literature.