In English we are reading some Hemingway short stories. Many of them discuss the theme of war and its long term effects on soldiers. When I was reading them I wondered, how would different readers interpret this story? A soldier with PTSD may read it differently than one who was unable to fight because he was blind or had some kind of physical defect? The soldier would use his memory and emotion to either agree with Hemingway. A would-be soldier may read it with jealousy or disbelief; if someone had not been in the war, could they ever truly imagine its horrors? This reader may use his intuition or imagination to interpret the story and may come to a completely different conclusion from the actual soldier. When I read these stories, I couldn't use memory to understand it. I had to use imagination and emotions. Even though the soldier who wasn't able to fight and I interpreted the story using the same ways of knowing (imagination), he and I might come to very different conclusions on the reliability of Hemingway in terms of describing war, simply because we started out with different opinions on that topic.
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