Throughout Earnest Hemingway’s book In Our Time there are many examples of masculinity, how men treat women, and the pressure society puts on men. Nick’s journey through the story shows him growing and learning about masculinity and how to treat women. The few stories that don’t include Nick show how society puts pressure on men to act a certain way. Finally the intermediate chapters show the gruesome reality of war on men and how it forces them to break their masculine cover and show fear. In the short story, Indian Camp, the father takes Nick to help deliver an Indian woman’s baby. During the procedure, the father mentions how he just blocks out the woman’s screams. This is because he is trying to keep a masculine composure by showing no …show more content…
He is seen as very masculine and teaches Nick many lessons. One is that his brain was ‘fried’ by women and warns Nick to not become close to them. This can be also related to when Nick and Bill are talking about married men. They say that once a man gets married he gets fat and he’s done for also that they’re ‘bitched.’ Neither one of them see getting married as a good thing. They see it as a way of losing your masculinity and being chained down by a woman. The second one that he taught Nick wasn’t direct Nick aspires to be like Ad Francis because he’s strong and Nick feels like he should be tough like him. This toughness helps lead Nick down the road of masculinity he wants to obtain. In Cross Country Snow Nick and George are on a skiing trip together. After they’re done skiing George and Nick are in an inn talking about wanting to ski forever. In the end, Nick says he can’t make any promises to go skiing again because Helen is having a baby. In this story, you can see Nick becoming a man. He knows he probably won’t be able to go skiing in the future because he must go home to Helen and take care of the baby and her when it’s