-title page-
<-pages 11-15->
Michael McNamara: Into
Something Rich and Strange
-=Pages 11-15=-
The Homosexual ‘Initiation’ – A Realization of Sexuality
The idea of following the secret
path to manhood from boyhood – the initiation into adulthood – was important to
Hemingway in creating his masculine mentor ideal. This initiation is usually not something
done, but instead it is a change inside one’s self. In the story of the two young men
in Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway presents us with an initiation to
homosexuality between two opposite poles - the experienced homosexual seducer and his
inexperienced homosexual companion. The seducer has knowledge while his companion is
ignorant. This is an extremely unfair polarity since, as Sedgewick writes, especially in
the realm of sexually, "ignorance is not...a singly Manicaean aboriginal maw of
darkness from which the heroics of human cognition can occasionally wrestle, insights,
freedoms...there exists instead a plethora of ignorances (Tendencies, 25)." In
the Parisian hotel situation, the poor man’s inexperience is a one of these
ignorances. However, just because one has not had a homosexual experience does not make
them ignorant of their own latent homosexuality. Although the poor man was violently
reluctant, threatening to commit suicide before engaging in homosexual sex, after the
wealthy man seemingly rapes him, the poor man accepts his sexuality and the two of them
become a couple. The polarity of the beginning implies that the poor man was
heterosexual until he was seduced by the wealthy man. This implication, along with the
sexual violence, creates an unbalanced and inaccurate example of the so-called initiation
into homosexuality. It seems that, at least originally, this was not Hemingway’s
intention. The three-page tale that appeared in Death in the Afternoon was actually
from another original story. Comely and Scholes write that, in the original version of the
tale, called "There’s One in Every Town," the female narrator tells a
similar story to a writer; this version, however, is a full eight pages in which the
female narrator talks at length about how, "young men come to her cafe before they
have determined their own sexual orientation and then, again after they have come out,
when it is still exciting for them (128)." "There’s One in Every Town"
shows there is more to the story that ended up as a part of Death in the Afternoon.
Hemingway was aware that the homosexual initiation was far more than just physical, and in
his short story, "A Simple Inquiry," shows another initiation that is less
polarized and more realistic. |
| In this story, a major calls his
young orderly, Pinin, into his quarters. For no apparent reason, he asks Pinin if he has
ever been in love with a girl. When Pinin replies that he has sexually been with a girl,
the major reminds him that this is not what he has asked. Pinin claims to be in love with
a girl and is forced to add that he never writes her after the major tells him that he has
read all of his letters. After making sure that the adjutant outside cannot hear them, the
major asks him if he is sure he is "not corrupt." After Pinin says that he does
not understand what the major means, the major accuses him of being superior. The major
then asks Pinin if he is sure about what he really wants and desires. To these
propositions, Pinin looks at the floor. The major then believes that Pinin is probably not
a homosexual like himself and dismisses him, warning him not to be superior, promising him
he won’t touch him if he does not want it and advising him to stay as his orderly
since it is safer. However, Pinin is "flushed and walks differently than he had moved
when he brought in the wood for the fire (329)," and after he leaves, the major
wonders if Pinin lied to him."A Simple Inquiry" shows a less binarized and
violent situation than the initiation in Death in the Afternoon. The major and
Pinin are somewhere between the two poles created by the characters in the Parisian hotel.
Where the wealthy man forced himself sexually on his companion by exerting force over him
physically, financially, and emotionally, the major, who is in a position of enormous
power over his orderly, does not threateningly wield this power; instead of taking sex
from Pinin, he merely tries to surmise the young man’s feelings about love. Hemingway
shows that there is more to homosexuality that just sexual acts. The major cares about
Pinin, worrying for his safety in the war that someone else might attempt to take
advantage of him. The major is also not as open with or comfortable in his homosexuality
as was the wealthy man; he is careful to make sure that no one can hear his conversation
and still believes, at least in part, that his homosexuality is a corrupting force. He is
more experienced than Pinin; however, his experience is limited by his own fear of his
secret sexuality. On the other hand, Pinin, unlike the poor man, is not completely
oblivious to what is happening and is clearly affected by the conversation. He cannot look
at the major as he questions him, and afterwards, he is changed, bothered by these
questions. This is not just because his commanding officer put him in an awkward position.
Comely and Scholes point out that "[i]t is this new walk, which the major hears from
the other room, that triggers his final musing about whether the orderly lied him"
(131). While inexperienced, Pinin is not entirely ignorant. He is aware of what the major
is thinking because he has thought about such things. The major’s questions and
propositions have forced Pinin to examine himself in a new way. This is the true
initiation into homosexuality. Although the reader does not know if Pinin chooses to stay
with the major or to reveal his sexuality to him, once this initiation takes place and
more ignorance is lost, we know that Pinin will, at least internally, change and deal with
these feelings. |
| A sexual initiation that mentions
homosexuality also takes place in "The Light of the World"; although some
critics, seeing the narrator as Nick Adams and therefore Hemingway himself, have
difficulty reading it as a story regarding sexual orientation (Comley & Scholes, 142),
the story definitely mentions the issue enough to give the ideas some definite merit. At
the story’s beginning, two teen-age boys, the narrator and his friend Tom, enter a
bar and are promptly scorned by the bartender for being "punks" – a common
Hemingway slang word referring to male homosexuals. They leave the bar and meet a group of
loggers, their cook who is brutally teased because he is homosexual, and two obese
prostitutes. As the motley crew converses, the narrator gains the attention of both Alice
the whore and the gay cook whom he does not tease. As he becomes increasingly enamored
with Alice, Tom says "Let’s go." As they leave, the cook asks where they
are going. Tom responds "The other way from you" (391). Comely and Scholes
write, "this narrator seems to poised between two kinds of sexuality— those of
the gay cook and the huge hooker... — but his friend takes him away...We don’t
know whether these boys are actual or possible punks; all we know is that they are
situated in a world in which they have only three choices: the cook, the hooker, and one
another" (143). In the end, the sexual orientation of Tom and the narrator is not as
important as what happens to them within the story. For the first time, the choice is upon
them. They have had their own initiation that removes them from a type of ignorance when
they are forced to make decisions about their sexuality.In "A Simple Inquiry" and "The Light of the World," the
initiation forces people to play the sexuality hands they have been dealt. The major
attempts to act upon his homosexuality but finds Pinin unreceptive. Pinin does not respond
to the major because he is not ready. The narrator accepts the homosexuality of the cook
and the obesity of the hooker but does not act upon either one of these impulses because
of the intervention of Tom who believes that his friend is not ready. Whether they were
gay or not does not change the fact that choices about sex exist for everyone. The
initiation into this world of choice is one of the biggest changes. It is one of the first
examinations of sexuality and gender that a young man must face. To become sexually
active– that is, to be physically initiated into the sexual world– was (and
still is) one of the modern societal steps to becoming a man, but for Hemingway, the real
initiation to manhood was the choice – the initiation into the sexual world that
begins inside one’s self. "A Simple Inquiry" and the inclusion of
homosexuality in "The Light of the World" show that Hemingway aware of the
parallels between this initiation for all people whether they be homo- or hetero- sexual. |
Of Men and Matadors - Masculine Failure
Beyond their initiation into
adulthood, there are many other similarities between homosexual and heterosexual men in
Hemingway’s texts. Even the offensive definition he gives for maric—ns shows
this. The very fact that he gives it seems strange. Comely and Scholes point out:
The very fact that he mentions that any matadors are homosexuals and
that then he gives them opposing characteristics shows that he knows that not only can
anyone be a homosexual, but also that any homosexual have any characteristic. Like any
men, there are no definite determiners to set them off from other people, and also like
other men, they have to struggle with the torture of living in society. |
| In "Mother of a Queen,"
Hemingway presents another homosexual failure. Like one of the matadors from Death in
the Afternoon, he is so cheap that he does not seem interested in paying twenty
dollars to keep his mother’s bones buried. Told from the point-of-view of one of the
members of the matador’s cuadrilla, the story’s basis is the
narrator’s attempt to convince the matador to spend the money for his mother’s
grave. The matador takes money from the cuadrilla’s cash box supposedly to
take care of that business; however, he spends it on other things. Even though the matador
has not paid him, the narrator stays involved in the matador’s personal business.
When the final notice comes, telling them that the matador’s mother’s bones have
been added to the public bone heap, the narrator is angered and becomes even more
infuriated when the matador comes to him to get even more money out of the cash box to
help a young punk from the matador’s home village. Thinking that this money should
have been spent in his own mother’s memory, the narrator calls the matador a
"motherless bitch" and finally leaves. Later, when the matador confronts the
narrator about the rumors the narrator has been spreading about him, the narrator replies,
"All I say is you never had a mother" – which is the strongest Spanish
insult. The matador replies, "That’s true...My poor mother died when I was so
young it seems as though I never had a mother. It’s very sad". The story ends
with the narrator saying "There’s a queen for you. You can’t touch them.
Nothing, nothing can touch them. They spend money on themselves or for vanity, but they
never pay" (TSS, 419).Although the story’s ending
may seem like yet another insult to homosexual men by Hemingway, it is important to
remember that the narrator in this tale, unlike the one in Death in the Afternoon,
is not Hemingway but another character. Comely and Scholes write, "This ability to
enter from his own views with mockery is one of Hemingway’s strong qualities as a
writer, and one for which he is rarely given credit (129)." Like Campbell, the
matador fails as a man because he does not take the responsibility that society says he
should. In the matador’s case, the narrator is the voice of society; he is always
reminding the matador of his responsibility and in the end, quite homophobic. For
Hemingway, though, it is not Campbell or the matador’s homosexuality makes them
failures, it is the ways they have chosen to live their lives2. |
