Tuesday, April 17, 2012

In "The Gambler, the Nun and the Radio," what is the significance of listing all the patients of the hospital and their injuries?Ernest Hemingway's...

In Hemingway's tale of suffering, loneliness, and
endurance, "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio," Mr. Frazer acts as the recording
consciousness for what one critic terms "the essential disinfranchisement" of the
residents of the hospital brought in "around midnight," symbolically the darkness hour. 
The listing of the patients, those who are injured, points to the plot of Hemingway's
story which is affliction, or injury.  This is what life is--a continual injury for
everyone.  And, so, it is a futile experiment, one that must not be thought
about.


The gambler confesses to being the victim of
illusions as he is a poor idealist. Mr. Frazer decides that the connection of all the
patients and the nun is that they each have an opium:


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Religion is the opium of the people.....Yes, and
music is the opium of the people....And now economics is the opium of the people; along
with patriotism the opium of the people in Italy and Germany.....Along with these went
gambling, and opium of the people if there ever was one, one of the oldest.  Ambition
was another....What was the real, the actual, opium of the people?....Of course; bread
was the opium of the
people.



Of course, bread is
symbolic of life. For Frazer life itself is illusionary.  And, so he plays the radio so
that he can hardly hear his thoughts.

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