In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway

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Study Questions

A rite of passage is a journey on which people--usually young men and women--go. Along the way, they learn lessons about themselves and about life. At the end, they are more mature than when they started. Does In Our Time show Nick Adams undergoing a rite of passage? Why?


How do the two stories "Out of Season" and "Cross-Country Snow" play off of each other? In other words, why would Hemingway juxtapose them?


What does the Three-Day Blow represent?


What does the title "Big Two-Hearted River" mean?

How does Italy function in the stories, both as setting and as symbol?

Who is "The Battler"? Why would Hemingway name the story that rather than "The Fighter" or "The Boxer"?

How does the story "On the Quai at Smyrna" introduce some of the themes of In Our Time?

Discuss the theme of love in "The End of Something" and "A Very Short Story."

Why does the American wife have such an affection for the hotel operator in "Cat in the Rain"?

What is "Out of Season" in the short story of that name?

On the Quai at Smyrna

by bhnnad, December 04, 2012

Sparknotes' commentary for On the Quai at Smyrna seems to have quite a few historical errors. The commentary states that the narrator is likely talking about the Greek evacuation of Thrace, but the title is On the Quai at Smyrna. Smyrna is a city in modern-day Turkey (now called Izmir). The Christian (mainly Greek and Armenian) part of Smyrna was burned in 1922 after the Turks recaptured the city from the Greeks. Hemingway was actually in Turkey just after the Great Fire to cover the Greco-Turkish War as a correspondent for the Toronto Star.... Read more

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