Child's Perspective in Hemingway's My Old Man

Seminar paper from the year 2000 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3 (A), Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institute for Anglistics/American Studies), course: HS Childish 1st person perspective-artificial naivete?, language: English, abstract: [...]The first aspect is stressed especially by Jackson J. Benson when he compares "e;My OldMan"e; and Anderson's "e;I Want To Know Why"e; similar in view, subject, plot, tone, anddiction. "e;Both stories are about boys in a race track setting. Both boys admire an older man, areinfluenced by him, and then find their admiration betrayed. Both boys are left puzzled andhurt by the experience. Each story is told in the first person by the boy who is characterizedby slightly broken grammar and the use of adolescent slang 'gee', 'gosh', and 'swell'."e;(Benson, 273)Christian Messinger argues that "e;Anderson sensed both the longing for success thatgripped track people and the disorder that accompanied overidentification with horses andracing."e; (Christian K. Messinger, 278) The following, however, will leave aside a possibleinfluence by Anderson1 but rather concentrates on the employed narrating device of achild's raconteur. Although it suggests itself to compare the two narration modes, I amafraid I have to narrow my focus for the following examination. As Carl Ficken points out"e;At the beginning of his writing career in the 1920's, Hemingway was working at ( ) theproblem of point of view. In his first publication, Three Stories and Ten Poems, 1923, hetold two of the stories through an omniscient third-person narrator and the other in the firstperson ( ) "e;My Old Man"e; in fact, remains one of the classical examples of the unreliablefirst person narrator."e; (Carl Ficken, 94) The following essay will thus discuss the second field of critical interest concerning "e;MyOld Man"e;: the narrative revelation or more specific Hemingway's technique of establishinga child's perspective. Based on Franz K. Stanzel s three categories person, perspective andmodus I will outline the typical features of the autobiographical I-narrator as Stanzel statesthem as relevant for interpretation. As I have pointed out the criteria that compose the Inarrating situation I will on these grounds discuss further how a child s perspective as ofthe I-narrator, Joe, is established in My Old Man and what function it serves in the story. 1 Hemingway vehemently denied the claimed influence of his elder patron that overshadowed his artist ego. With the bitter satire Torrents of Spring (1927) he publicly recoiled from Anderson and broke with him as afriend.