Using love to justify sex in a very short story At first glance unusually normal, at second glance unusually surprising, the title "A Very Short Story "reveals Hemingway's perception of a perhaps unforgettable war experience. The man went to war. He met a woman. They spent many nights together. They considered marriage. He returned home without her. She moved on. He moved on. The end. The story, the relationship of events, is really short. This is not eternal spiritual love; instead, this is the animalistic and barbaric sexual act: sex and love for the sole purpose and convenience of sex itself. Then it's over. The story begins with “A WARM Evening in Padua” (Hemingway, 65), “warm” relating to passionate feelings, and “evening” as the perfect time for a relationship. The reader can deduce from the reference to Padua, a city in the north-east of Italy, that perhaps the character is at war, and in fact this is confirmed in the fourth paragraph with the reference to an "armistice" (65). The main character himself is called "he", although, knowing the author's biographical history and presence in the war, "Hemingway" is a presumable substitution. "They" (65), his war companions, "took him to the roof", transported him because he was wounded, but also, since "the others came down carrying bottles with them", most likely drunk. There he and the female figure "Luz" meet, she "sat on the bed" and "was cool and fresh in the hot night." Immediately, alcohol, a boy and a girl, a rather comfortable bed and a "hot" night left alone on the roof come together, resulting in a passionate love story. So who is this Luz? Well, apparently, since he was "on night duty" (65), and she was the one who "prepared him for the operating table", he is a......half of paper......ncoln Park. " (66). The man went to war. He met a woman. They spent many nights together. They considered marriage. He came home without her. She moved on. He moved on. The end. It's a short story, and it's simple, simple attraction of opposite sexes, simple breakup, simple healing. Not to mention marriage, it resembles any animal mating ritual on the Discovery Channel, as the cycle continues, and so, simple healing magically turns into painful consequences. Perhaps, in Hemingway's life, the simple recovery from the loss of a lover after the war somehow contributes to his suicide many years later"., 1925.