When we discussed “The Battler” by Ernest Hemingway in class, we mentioned how it seemed to be a coming-of-age story. Many of us were reminded of stories such as Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye. This connection is pretty obvious –these stories all feature a young boy lost in a big world, who learns some sort of lesson about life or adulthood by the end of the story. However, we discovered in class that it’s a bit more difficult to classify “The Battler” as a true coming-of-age story. For one, it’s a short story, so it gives us less to work with and decipher than those classic novels do. However, the main issue is the ambiguity of the ending –we are not sure if Nick has learned anything at all from the encounter, especially not something important enough to be associated with his “coming of age”.  We discussed this ambiguity in class, but we didn’t ask the question that interests me now: why? If Hemingway intended for this story to be a coming-of-age story, why make it so difficult to understand the message? The previously mentioned coming-of-age books, Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye, have clear messages that they establish through the “journey” of their main characters. It is fairly obvious in both (particularly Huck Finn) in which ways the main characters come of age and what they learn, and it’s completely clear that they do come of age in some way. “The Battler”, again, is a different story –nothing is clear. Perhaps Hemingway does this as a reflection of his realistic views on growing up. These coming-of-age stories, though often inspiring, can be seen as unrealistic in the “real world”, as many things in life do not contribute to some sort of life lesson and are just arbitrary and meaningless.

-Audrey Doidge

aad6