Quest for Meaning in Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway

Abstract

Colonel Cantwell is a male protagonist in the novelAcross the River and in to the Trees written by Ernest Hemingway. Colonel is a man of fifty who is a victim of First and Second World wars. He has beenshot several times during the wars so he is psychologically as well as physically wounded, now. He had been suffering from heart disease also. It shows that Colonel is living a life without meaning or significance in the novel. One day, he decides to goon a tour for duck shooting in Venice where he had fought for in the two great World Wars in his youth. He falls in love with nineteen year old girl named Renata during his trip. Renata and Venice give meaning into his life so he maintains hope for survival although he could be dead at any time. At the end of the story, in the novel , colonel Cantwell returns from Venice to Italy, leaving his young beloved far behind in Italy. Both of them feel extremely lonely when they depart from each other. But, on theway to Italy, Colonel meets his tragic death inside the car. Hemingway in the novel had depicted man’s isolation, loneliness and alienation in the novel. Colonel Cantwell feels lonely in the beginning when he rejects home, lonely when Renata deserts him and flees away with her mother and lonely when he returns home in the end.