Despite recent questions about Hemingway's future relevance in mainstream modernist studies, there is little doubt that the Man with the Rifle carries a heavy literary burden with him far beyond his grave. While it is true that he never managed to move beyond his perception of a world that served merely as a solar system for its sun, he still managed to capture an important slice of America with his portraits of an era of decay and despair . To complain about not being a Whitman or a Faulkner is to miss some fascinating details. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To grasp the truths behind In Our Time, you must first look at the historical context from which it arose. Hemingway's generation saw the height of nihilism during the Great War. None of the ancient institutions, such as romance or duty, could repel the merciless blows of that all-consuming spiritual void. As a result, both soldiers and hospital drivers returned home with shattered expectations and the need to find something, anything else to believe in - hence the previously unknown obsession with a chronology-based lifestyle. Others, such as Hemingway and Eliot, sought refuge in mythology and the ritual qualities it contained. This, and the desire to challenge all "outdated" conventions such as narrative flow and coherence, gave rise to what we know as Modernism. Whether this is actually a case of "poor me" (as America has interpreted Johnny recently arriving at war) or not depends on one's perspective. Hemingway exemplified this ideal with his sterile cartoons of a generation stranded in a wilderness and forced into introspection. In “The Soldier's Home,” Krebs laments that he has lost, as his mother says, “your ambition…you have no definite purpose in life” (75). When she asks him if he still loves her, he simply says no. When she pulls away and starts to cry, he tries to comfort her by explaining that "I didn't mean that. I was just angry about something." This "something" is the cause of Krebs' anguish, but it is never explicitly stated. This is because, like many others of his generation, he didn't know what to get angry about. This inexpressible emotion, this floating guilt complex, has left him destitute and reluctant to return to the life he once felt comfortable with. Krebs, however, only appears in one chapter, as do most of the characters. The only recurring person is Nick, who undergoes an interesting transformation over the course of the pages and ultimately serves to tie the otherwise unrelated panels into something that isn't so much a story as a series of scattered photographs from a bygone era. Early on, we are given a glimpse of Nick as he loses his sense of innocence towards the world when he finds a man who committed suicide. Rather significantly, when he asks his father if dying is difficult, he replies, "No, I think it's pretty easy, Nick. It all depends" (19). From there we follow Nick through various stages of life and through the repercussions of his time at war. Like Krebs, he loses his romantic ideas about the importance of women in a man's life, as demonstrated in "The End of Something". This chapter paints a poignant contrast between the pre-war and post-war periods. Marjorie represents the age of pristine innocence and everything that Nick held precious before he was exposed to the terrors of war (and is also proof enough that Hemingway was indeed capable of creating romantic characters, especially with the line: "She loved to fish . She loved fishing with Nick."), while..