Question

What does the machinery in the hospital represent to the army major in the story? in the short story "in another country".

Answer 1

In the early twentieth century, there was rapid growth in technological advancements, which enhanced the quality of human life. However, these advancements also resulted in the invention and use of deadlier weapons and combat vehicles that no other war had seen thus far. The old major was a constant witness to the havoc that these advancements in technology wreaked. This led to the major looking at all modern machinery with dismay, including the machinery that could help restore the major’s disfigured arm. The major’s distrust in technology is evident in the following lines of the story:

The doctor went to his office in a back room and brought a photograph which showed a hand that had been withered almost as small as the major's, before it had taken a machine course, and after was a little larger. The major held the photograph with his good hand and looked at it very carefully. "A wound?" he asked.

"An industrial accident," the doctor said.

"Very interesting, very interesting," the major said, and handed it back to the doctor.

"You have confidence?"

"No," said the major.

Answer 2

The machinery in the hospital represent the man’s vital functioning controlled by the technology and the slaughtering of the soldiers on the field of battle. The major was once a champion fencer which was altered by a war after a traumatic psychological and physical injury. He depicts his unfaithfulness in the machine to rehabilitate his hand considering it to be “nonsense” and “an idiotic idea”. The major was completely disillusion after his wife’s death due to pneumonia and deepen his fatality towards his life. By the end of the story the major convinces himself to put his hand in the machine and consider it to be fruitful.