The Battler (Ernest Hemingway)

1) One-sentence summary
The young man of 15-16 years old, taking a journey in America (Michigan) at the
end of the 19 century, is thrown out of a moving train and in the forest he meets
two men, one of whom is crazy former boxer.

2) Segmentation
I divide the story into 3 parts.
1) It opens with an adolescent Nick who has left home and is out on his own for
the first time. He has been riding the rods and has just been knocked off a moving
freight by a brakeman. He is limping up the tracks, heading for the next town on
foot. He crosses a bridge and sees a fire in the distance. He approaches it carefully
and sees only one man sitting at it.
2) After being invited Nick sits down and tells the man what has just happened to
him. The man calls him a tough boy and introduces himself as Ad Francis, a
former well-known fighter. Another man called Bugs appears in the darkness. He
brings some food with him and starts making a little dinner for them. When he asks
Nick to slice the bread, Ad sees the knife and wants to have it. Bugs forbids him to
take it and goes on talking to Nick. After a while, not saying anything, Ad stands
up and wants to fight Nick. But he knows that Ad is much stronger than he and
therefore wants to avoid a fight.
3) Since Ad does not give in, Bugs sneaks behind him hitting him so hard that he
loses his consciousness. The question why Ad becomes mad like this, Bugs
answers with a story about Ads sister. First she was Ads manager during his time
as a champion-fighter, and then they got married. A short time after the marriage
she left him, and that was the time when Ad started to beat up people. It got so far
that he was arrested. In jail he got to know Bugs and since then they have made
their way together. After he has finished Bugs tells Nick to leave, Nick goes out
into the darkness, walking up the track again.
3) Setting
Hemingway uses a dark forest as the setting for the meeting between the two
characters. Hemmingway describes it as 'dark and a long way from anywhere'. The
language used by Hemmingway indicates that it is an ominous place; one, which
you would not want to be lost in. He repeats that it is 'dark' and 'black'. The forest
seems remote and mysterious; it is near a 'ghostly swamp'. The atmosphere is
oppressive and frightening.

4) Characterization
Nick Adams - Protagonist.
Nick, like many male protagonists, goes on an adventure by himself. Along the
way, he runs into trouble, like the man on the train. But, he learns from these
mishaps.
Ad Francis - A old boxer who Nick meets when punched off a freight train. Ad
achieved everything with brutality, his toughness and his physical power was all he
needed to be on top of the world. But especially when you reach all your success
by being brutal, it will not last forever. Ad could fight the strongest men, but he
was not able to handle feelings like loneliness or sadness. So he could not
comprehend the loss of his wife and went mad. Finally he fell so deep that he
ended in jail and now lives the life of a poor man. He is not able to control himself
anymore and he needs Bugs to take care of him. Although he probably knows
about that, he is too proud to admit it even after all that time.
Bugs - A friend and traveler with Ad. Bugs can be seen as a counterpart to Ad: he
is nice, patient and calm. Ad on the other hand can snap in and out of reality at any
moment, he is dangerous for society and has to be kept away from it. Bugss role is
to keep him away, to protect him from himself. Bugs reminds the reader of a caring
mother or a nurse: he protects Ad and Nick, feeds them, settles an argument and
punishes.
 5) Narrative voice

The story is narrated in the first person by Nick Adams who is young and
inexperienced enough. Hemingway presents action without external narration or
explanation on purpose, allowing the events in effect to present themselves and
allowing the reader to discover the meaning of these events on his or her own.

6) Plot Composition

Nick Adams merely passes through a situation. He stumbles into it without

planning to do so, is briefly engaged in it, then, having observed its dynamics, he
departs at the appropriate time. The story is thematically tight. Hemingway wastes
no words in its telling. He shows more than he tells, revealing character
convincingly yet almost incidentally. The result is a story that has remarkable
thematic and structural coherence. In this story the central character is one of
societys rejects.
7) Language and style
Hemingway's style fits with the tone of the story and with the author's standing
back from the action and allowing the events to speak for themselves. Hemingway
writes in a succinct style that has been carefully shaped to add detail upon detail
with strong imagery. Hemingway also uses images to carry the action from one
place to another. Nick instinctively knows that he has a black eye, though he
cannot see it and laments the fact that he cannot see it. The black eye identifies
Nick as a battler himself, and it is the black eye that Ad first comments upon and
that makes Ad invite Nick to join him at the fire. The two share a moment because
each has been attacked by a brakeman at some time or other, and Ad sees Nick as
tough because he has had a fight: "All kids are tough". Here Ad shows both his
own attitude and the real belief on the part of Nick that he is indeed tough. The
story shows Nick that the truth lies elsewhere.
Hemingway makes good use of names in furthering the meaning of his story. Ad is
short for Adam Francis; a famous name to Nick, but the short version--Ad--serves
to point to that character as a sort of advertisement for what could happen to Nick
if he follows the same path and allows his anger to guide him in fighting the world.
Hemingway demonstrates in The Battler the effectiveness and appropriateness of
depicting characters on the social fringe, essentially antiheroes, as unostentatiously
as he can. Few of his sentences exceed ten or twelve words. Simple sentences
predominate and, when Hemingway uses a compound sentence, it is usually held
together by a simple and.
Hemingway, however, prefers to allow his characters to speak the way real people
speak, even if they repeat themselves.

"Don't you like my pan?(Comparison a pan=face) the man asked.

Nick was embarrassed.
"Sure," he said.
"Look here!" the man took off his cap.
He had only one ear. It was thickened and tight against the side of his head. Where the other ear
should have been there was a stump.
"Ever see one like that?"(Ellipsis)
"No," said Nick. It made him a little sick.
"I could take it," the man said. "Don't you think I could take it, kid?"
"You bet!"
"They all bust their hands on me," the little man said. "The couldn't hurt me."
He looked at Nick. "Sit down," he said. "Want to eat?"
"Don't bother," (Ellipsis) Nick said. "I'm going on to the town."
"Listen!" the man said. "Call me Ad."
"Sure!"(Repeatition)

The vernacular informal language gives an idea to the readers that the events have
been really happened. In keeping with the title, the story has a contentious tone
carried by Hemingway's succinct syntax and concrete semantics. The theme
expresses a view of the mythic journey through life in which the young man learns
about life and forms his character on that basis.
8) Idea

This story is called "The Battler" and not "The Boxer", because it does not only
refer to Ads struggle in the ring as a fighter, but also refers to Ads battle of life. It
shows that life is an endless battle, and how a person can become if this battle is
lost.