Perspectives

Literary period

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Battler” is part of the modernist literary movement. This movement experienced a rise in the late 20th century and carried on through the early 21th century. The story was published in 1925, a time period when Modernism was still a popular literary style used by many authors.

Modernist works can be recognised through themes, context, and narrative techniques. In “The Battler,” Ernest Hemingway explores violence and trauma - themes which we often meet in other modernist works. The story also employs the use of symbols which implicitly reflect the main character’s state of mind and convey the deeper meanings of the story; this is another narrative technique often used by modernist writers.

In terms of modernist narrative techniques, the short story emp...