Abstract
This essay examines Hemingway's tale "A Very Short Story" in terms of it being a roman de clef. The paper proposes two layers of interpretation. The writer discusses that in the first layer, "A Very Short Story" is a simple story of the growing pains of the protagonists. In the second interpretation, the story takes the context of war into account and discovers the author's allusions to the experiences of a nation that acquires maturity through the event of war. The essay examines the author's sparse and detached style to this end. The paper also highlights the idealism of the protagonists as it portends to immaturity.

From the Paper
"Though largely autobiographical, the author assumes a very detached note, merely relating events with little exposition on the characters. One interpretation is that the author is using his writing as merely a therapeutic exercise. But it also allows another interpretation in which the growing pains of the protagonist may be compared to the tribulations of a growing nation finding its feet in the larger stage of the world.
"The romantic love affair described therein is more aptly described as puppy love. Much of it is autobiographical. The exploits of the young man closely parallel the war-time experience of Hemingway, who was engaged in combat and wounded from shrapnel. The author has fallen in love with the nurse while recuperating in a Milan hospital, and the couple kept in touch with each other through letters after he recovered and resumed duties. Later he returned to the same hospital with jaundice. This time he proposes that they get married and move to the States. But the nurse is unwilling to sacrifice her career."

Tags:Lost, generation, sparse, style, prose, modernism

Abstract
This paper analyzes the main character in William Somerset Maugham's novel "The Moon and Sixpence" as a tortured and cruel soul, which becomes a symbol of the blessing and the curse of transcendent artistic genius and its cost to humans relationships with the artist. The paper illustrates how this story is a nearly perfect example of the roman a clef form of novel, in it's parallel to painter Paul Gauguin's biography.

From the Paper
'Many of us wish, sometime in our lives, to change everything about ourselves, to reverse the course of our lives, to become different people, to have lives that are fundamentally more interesting and fulfilling and meaningful. Most of us, of course, do not do this, partly out of fear, partly out of laziness, partly because we do not have the talent or means to do so. If we could all become great painters " or jockeys or chefs or whatever it is we dream about becoming, after all, we should have become those things to begin with. William Somerset Maugham in his novel The Moon and Sixpence examines the life of one man who decides to do just this, and the consequences to that man and his family " consequences that are both terrible and fundamentally liberating."

Tags:artist, life, desertion, william, somerset, maugham, paul, gaugin, genius, humans, relationships, roman, a, clef