Implications of Narrative Perspective in Hemingway's "Now I Lay Me"

Studies in American Fiction213 11"Tender is the Night and George Herbert Mead," in Marvin LaIIood, ed., Tenderis the Night (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969), p. 167. '"Piper, p. 228. '»Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1965), p. .345. 20Andrew Turnbull, ed., The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1965), p. 281. IMPLICATIONS OF NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE IN HEMINGWAY'S "NOW I LAY ME" Scott MacDonald I'tica College Though "Now I Lay Me" is one of Hemingway's most interesting short stories, few critics have done more than mention it in passing and indicate that it has clear relationships to other Nick Adams stories, in particular to "Big Two-Hearted River" and "A Way You'll Never Be." Generally, the story has been thought significant mainly because it fills gaps in the continuing Nick Adams saga, gaps involving Nick's early convalescence in Italy after the Fossalta wound and certain childhood events revealed in his memories of earlier years.1 Those critics who have discussed "Now I Lay Me" have usually been concerned with psychological questions. Joseph DeFalco and Richard B. Hovey, for example, investigate the psychological implications of the story's imagery and of the patterns of association in Nick's mind.2 Both critics conclude that Nick's memories of the unhappy relationship of his parents are a clue not only to the meaning of the Freudian symbols Hemingway uses in the story but also to Nick's rejection of marriage during his talk with John. Alan Holder emphasizes another aspect of Nick's psychological state. I Ie feels that instead of making a meaningful adjustment to his experiences, Nick rejects women and marriage and indulges in "what we might call mental masturbatory activity centered not on the erotic but on fishing!"3 Hovey, DeFalco, and Holder make interesting points in their discussions, but like other critics they fail to discuss certain important aspects of the way in which the story is presented. What is generally overlooked is the fact that the first person narrative perspective Hemingway develops in "Now I Lay Me" is one of the most unusual and complex in his fiction. When this narrative perspective is examined carefully, it becomes clear that a good deal 214Notes more is involved in the story than has been generally recognized. The most important aspect of the narrative perspective of "Now I Lay Me" involves the careful distinction between the "Nick" who convalesced in Italy and the "Nick" who narrates the story.4 This distinction is clear in the opening paragraph.5 Nick explains how he lay on the floor of the room "that night" in Italy and "did not want to sleep because I had been living for a long time with the knowledge that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my soul would go out of my body" (p. 363) . He then draws attention to his situation as narrator by suggesting that since "that night" his beliefs have been modified: "So while now I am fairly sure that it would not really have gone out, yet then, that summer, I was unwilling to make the experiment." In addition to making explicit the differentiation between the Nick who narrates and the Nick who convalesced in Italy, this comment suggests interesting information about the narrator. It is clear that, as he narrates, Nick is more fully recovered from the shock of his wound than he was "that summer." At the same time, however, the passage implies that even at the time of his narrating he has not fully recovered from what happened to him. Nick is, after all, only "fairly sure" that his soul would not have gone out, and his lack of complete confidence indicates that some apprehension concerning his memories still remains. The implications of the opening paragraph of "Now I Lay Me " are reemphasized by the way in which Nick concludes the story. Nick describes how he and John were separated some time after the evening of their conversation and explains that John came "to the hospital in Milan to see me several months after and was very disappointed...