Previous studies of Ernest Hemingway’s “Up in Michigan” have focused mainly on the issues of love and sex between the characters, Liz and Jim. In the story in which the heroine, Liz is infatuated with Jim, the two are given typical feminine and masculine images. Critics have naturally interpreted the story within the contrasting framework of man and woman. However, they have been apt to overlook another aspect of the story involving an individual’s recognition of reality which transcends the idea of a woman’s love for a man. In this paper, I would like to discuss the reciprocal relationship between two layers of the story development: the one concerning Liz’s longing for Jim, and the other concerning the problem in recognizing reality described through Liz’s way of perception. Due to the organic interweaving of these two layers, Jim as the object of Liz’s romantic feelings comes to represent the reality which she is forced to face. The frame of the sexes is maintained throughout the story, but when there is a noticeable simplification of this framework, it becomes clear that it has been used as an elaborate device to link the heroine’s infatuation with the issue of reality perception. By examining one of the earliest short stories of Hemingway from a creative point of view, we can prove that it is an ambitious piece contrived in a much more meticulous way than has been considered.
智子 鈴木 (Sat,) studied this question.