This forty line extract of the short story Sea Change, by Ernest Hemingway, was first published in the magazine This Quarter in 1931. The story is based on a conversation overheard in the Basque Bar in Saint-Jean-de Luz, France, and also on a three-hour conversation with Gertrude Stein, about lesbians. This short story is also connected with the story "Hills Like White Elephants," and is thus associated to the lost generation; in other words, young people that have come back from the war, and don't see any meaning in life anymore, and thus they follow the same circular activities. The story has also a special significance, because of the theme of homosexuality. Hemingway in fact had the suspicion that both his mother and first wife were involved in homosexual activities. The story, as in "Hills Like White Elephants," present a man and a woman having a delicate argument. In this story, the men and women from "Hills Like White Elephants" switch places; thus it is the woman now that is trying to convince the man by being nice to him and manipulative. Thus we can see how these two stories are very similar in the context.
The girl in this story appears to be very manipulative much like the man from "Hill's Like White Elephants," because she is trying to make her homosexual affair sound reasonable and rational; while she is pretending to still have feelings for the man, and that she loves him. She us in fact trying to get his approval of the lesbian affair, and wants to make sure that he will accept her back after her fling is over. Thus we can infer how she wants to have this affair one way or another, even though Phil agrees to it or not. So, she appears to be manipulating Phil, by presenting the affair as something utterly unavoidable, as if it was destiny for her to have that affair. She insists on this, asking Phil to be "good to [her] and let [her] go," she even tries to make him think that she can be forgiven since she told him about it; "you can't forgive me? When you know about it?" She is so manipulative, that she wants to compare the things that Phil and her have done with a lesbian affair, "you don't think things we've had and done should make any difference in understanding?" Thus she is hinting that Phil and her have done many things, that are not very dissimilar to a lesbian affair; this hints to the fact that they both might have had other affairs besides their relationship, but they are ignoring it. This brings out the lost generation; having sex randomly just for pleasure, seeing no meaning in life. She furthers this image later on, when she mentions that "we'r made up of all sorts of things. You've known that. You've used it well enough." So, she is trying to make him feel guilty; as if he was willing to indulge himself in his own pleasures (other affairs) whenever he wanted, in the past, but he wont let her indulge in her pleasures. Thus, she is manipulating Phil, trying to get him to understand her, and let her go, and then accept her back. Phil however, who is willing to change this irresponsible life that they both had, does not want to agree to her lesbian affair. Through out the whole extract, the girl keeps trying to get Phil's approval, manipulating him and his ideas.
The man, Phil, at the beginning makes the reader feel sorry for him, as we might feel sorry for Jig, in "Hills Like White Elephants." However, we understand that he only wants this own way, and he is jealous, since the lesbian affair threatens his image, and thus he is not willing to agree, and let her go. Thus, as we enter this extract, we lose sympathy for him, because in the past he has pretty much had it his "own way," for a "long time." Here, we infer that he has probably been leading the relationship in ...
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The man, Phil, at the beginning makes the reader feel sorry for him, as we might feel sorry for Jig, in "Hills Like White Elephants." However, we understand that he only wants this own way, and he is jealous, since the lesbian affair threatens his image, and thus he is not willing to agree, and let her go. Thus, as we enter this extract, we lose sympathy for him, because in the past he has pretty much had it his "own way," for a "long time." Here, we infer that he has probably been leading the relationship in the past, just as the man in "Hills Like White Elephants," and the girl was submitted to his will. Also, when the girl refers to "things we've had and done" in the past, we get the idea that the man had had his own way for a long time, possibly having other pleasures except her. He has in fact used the phrase "We'r made up of all sorts of things" in the past, when it was convenient for him. Thus we see that the man only wants his own way, and he would not let the girl have her own way; these past quotes hint how in the past it has always been like this, and the man wants it to stay this way. He is also jealous of the fact that she is going to sleep with another woman, even though he has done so himself many times. We can see his jealousy when he expresses her homosexual affair as a "vice2 and a "perversion." He thus quotes a famous quote by Alexander Pope: " Vice is a monster of such fearful mien" "that to be something or other needs but to be seen. Then we something something, embrace." Here, apart from his jealousy, we can see how the men has poor culture and education, since he can't remember the complete phrase: "Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, /As to be hated needs but to be seen;/Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,/We first endure, then pity, then embrace." Apart from his jealousy, and selfishness, we see that this last phrase by Alexandar Pope, may hint to the man's relationship with the girl, and how disastrous it is, based on vices, that they both share, and nothing else. So, the men appears to be sharing similar vices as the girl, even more probably; however, he doesn't want the girl to have her own pleasure, thus he is shown as selfish and jealous.
The other characters in this story; James the barman, and the other two drinkers, show us another perspective on the conversation between the man and the girl. They set the context in an indifferent world, were nobody cares about anything, and everything is meaningless. During the conversation between the man and the girl, the barman "at the far end of the bar" is watching them, and Hemingway, gives us a glimpse into his mind: "He knew these two and thought them a handsome young couple. He had seen many handsome young couples break up and new couples form that were never so handsome long." This shows us how the man an the girl are nothing new or special, just another couple of the "lost generation;" where there is no meaning in their relationship, they are together just for pleasure, no fidelity, no loyalty. Thus they will not stay so "handsome long" because of the meaningless life that they are leaving, and thus it is inevitable for them to break up. The presence of the barman also indicates the meaningless of the situation, since he is "not thinking about this, but about a horse. In half an hour he could send across the street to find if the horse had won." Thus we see how the barman also doesn't care at all about this couple; so we get the impression of how meaningless it all is, including the couple's argument. We see once again this indifference towards life, and this meaningless way of leaving, in the way the barman addresses the two drinkers and vice-versa. He does so with the total indifference to what they are saying, just to be polite, and professional; "you're looking very well yourself, " he answered to the drinkers that told him that he was "looking very well." James, thus this only to keep the formality, there is not any real reason or meaning. So, the presence of the bartender and the drinkers is there, to just reflect this meaningless world, and the meaningless way this couple has been living all along. A world where everybody only cares about their own personal interests, and not about others, just as the man and the girl, care only about their interests.
This story, just as in "Hills Like White Elephants, " uses a "minimalistic" style, which is the typical Hemingway style. This style works to present the "existentialist" theme implied in all stories, a world without God. Firstly, Hemingway uses the technique of third person narrator, and as usual the reader's presence as narratorial presence in the story is very limited; this image is used to emphasize the absence of God. Hemingway, just as in most other stories, never enters in the character's mind. He does this only rarely, when he wants to bring out a certain theme, usually the theme of the "lost generation." This happens in this story, when he enters the mind of James, the barman, who is observing the couple: "He knew these two and thought them a handsome young couple. He had seen many handsome young couples break up and new couples form that were never so handsome long. He was not thinking about this but about a horse. In half an hour he could send across the street to find if the horse had won." Hemingway, thus gives us this glimpse into the men's mind to stress the theme of the "lost generation," and the indifference of the world around the couple, a world without meaning, and no God. Other features of Hemingway's minimalistic style, is the minimalist Anglo-Saxon vocabulary which strips the English language to the very basic words; stressing the idea of an extentialist world . We can take as example the description of the barman, " The barman was at the far end of the bar. His face was white and so was his jacket." The words he uses are so simple, and monosyllabic, thus giving this idea of a bare naked world; "barman," "bar," "face," and "jacket." The only adjective here used is "white," and this itself is a very simple adjective, still emphasizing this idea of the simplistic style. Finally, in this story Hemingway uses repetition a lot, which stresses the boredom of this empty world. However, it also foregrounds certain words that Hemingway wants to emphasize for his personal use, for example in these sentences: " He knew these two and thought them a handsome young couple. He had seen many handsome young couples break up and new couples form that were never so handsome long." In this case, the adjective "handsome" is repeated three times, this brings out the key theme of this story, that though on the surface these people lead attractive and bright lives, they actually live hollow and meaningless lives. Also he wants to foreground the importance of this word on the surface for the reader, while revealing the actual hollow meaning. So, we can understand that Hemingway's minimalistic style is always showed In his stories, and the style used in a Sea Change is similar to Hills Like White Elephants.
To conclude, Hemingway, as in "Hills Like White Elephants," brings out the main theme in this story, which is the condition of the "lost generation," however, in this story the issue of fidelity and infidelity is brought out, as both man and woman have affairs. The setting of this story, the end of summer, and beginning of autumn also brings out this fact of the end of the relationship, since there is another season ending. So it foregrounds what is coming ahead.
