Story of Soldiers in World War 1

“In Another Country,” our behaviours determine who we are as an individual. Our expressions and emotions allow people around us to perceive our character. “I was never really one of them.” The American soldier is an outsider in the country in terms of nationality and war experience. Despite their war experience, Nick is isolated in some aspect from the other soldiers and the surrounding world.

“In Another Country,” is a short story of soldiers in World War 1 who visit a hospital for rehabilitation. Walking down the streets, the soldiers were showing their medals and learnt that the narrator was an American. This made the other soldiers feel he did not experience the same struggle as them to get the badge. The soldiers no longer viewed him as an equal but as a friend against the outsider. The Major, who is a friend to the soldier, regularly came to the hospital due to his hand. Despite the visit, he did not believe in the machines. The major lost his wife after a short illness, and this left him devastated, he felt he had lost everything. After that, the Major always stared out of the window instead of focusing on his treatment. Courage, loss, trauma and discrimination are some of the themes in short. This paper will discuss the issue of discrimination citing specific quotations from the story for illustration.

The narrator, who is an American faces discrimination from the fellow soldiers and the surrounding world in terms of nationality and wartime experience. When in hospital for his rehabilitation service, he meets with other soldiers with similar experience. However, the other soldiers feel he is a foreigner but a friend to the outside enemy (Evans and Wang). This can be illustrated from his name; he is mentioned as an 'American.' Furthermore, the other soldiers believe that he got his medal for being an American, “that I had been the medals because I was an American,” he did not do as much as hem during wartime. This made them discriminate him. 'The three with the medals were like hunting-harks, and I was not a hawk”…. “They knew better, and so we drifted apart.' (Ernest, 2)

The officer prefers to spend time with the boy with no nose. He feels closer to the boy because he was wounded in the war before he could prove his bravery. He got injured on the first encounter on the front line, unlike the other officers. The other officers believe they had done more during the wartime than the American soldier and the boy. But he stayed good friends with the boy because he felt that the boy could never be accepted either.

Despite the other officers isolating the American soldiers, all the soldiers are discriminated against by the surrounding world. The society had animosity towards the offices, which made them feel detached from the community. “The people hated us because we were officers, and from a wine shop someone would call out, “A basso gli ufficiali” as we passed (Ernest, 2). They were detached from the civilian society through their encounter with the war. Thus they seek companionship from those who have a similar experience. Despite their efforts to return to normalcy, those who do not understand their experience still discriminate against them.

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