"A Natural History of the Dead" Summary

The narrator seeks to provide a scientific study of death during a war in the same style that landscapers and zoologists write in. He describes the appearance of dead animals, dead soldiers, dead women, and exploding human bodies. One battle he records is the Austrian offensive in June of 1918. The narrator describes death as inhuman and lacking in dignity. He compares his personal experience with the more poetic descriptions of death written in books and philosophy. He records a conversation between a doctor and a soldier over the wounded. The soldier tells the doctor that he is cruel for not ending the suffering of a wounded man. The doctor is offended and attacks the soldier by blinking him with iodine.

"A Natural History of the Dead" Analysis

Hemingway uses his personal...