An Unlikely Pairing

In Hemingway’s “Just Before the War with the Eskimos”, we encounter two seemingly polar opposite characters who converse and leave with a better understanding of each other. We can infer that Ginnie Mannox lives in an upperclass, proper family. She plays tennis with her “friend”, Selena Graff, and takes a taxi home every day, which typically means she is well off and privileged. On the other hand, Franklin, Selena’s brother, is a totally opposite character from Ginnie. He is a slob and doesn’t care much what people think of him. Initially, Ginnie seems repulsed by him as he entered “wearing glasses and pajamas and no slippers [he] lunged into the room with his mouth open...without stopping, and with extremely poor posture, he continued across the room” (42). As Franklin enters, Ginnie has her legs crossed and coat smoothed over, intent on making a good impression. But, obviously, Franklin doesn’t have the same idea in his mind as he literally lunges into the room and shows her his bloody finger that he has apparently cut right down to the bone.

Now, although Ginnie is, at first, disgusted by how Franklin acts and dresses, throughout the conversation, she becomes increasingly intrigued with his character. I suppose one doesn’t come across a character like Franklin everyday. Unlike Ginnie, and probably the people Ginnie hangs around, Franklin isn’t concerned with the opinions of others. He isn’t worried about politeness, he does things because he’s not self conscious. Through this, he ends up opening Ginnie’s narrow view of the world. In Ginnie’s mind, life is based on impressions. If you are well off, you must appear and act well off and act accordingly. But, seeing Franklin, who lives in a pretty well off family, act as though he lives elsewhere, inspires her. I suppose it could be exhausting for Ginnie to have to constantly be conscious of how she looks and acts. She can finally relax around Franklin and learn about his background that is so vastly different from the people she usually associates herself with.

This is probably one of the reasons why Ginnie changes her mind in the end about Selena owing her money and asks if they can hang out later. Initially, Ginnie didn’t understand Selena and her family. She thought it was ridiculous that Selena couldn’t spare the money to help pay for the taxi fare from time to time. It seems as though Ginnie just grouped together Selena and her family and so it didn’t matter what sort of complications they were going through, she just wanted her money. But, after speaking and learning about Selena’s brother, Ginnie becomes enlightened. Franklin gives her a new perspective on Selena’s family. Initially, Ginnie thoughts they were all the same, but now she can see just how unique Selena and her brother are. (Assumably, the Graff parents must be pretty interesting characters as well). This is why Ginnie wants to hang out with Selena more later. She’s realized that she doesn’t know the true Selena and that there is more to her story. Ginnie finds Franklin’s character fascinating and seemingly wants to learn more about the Graff family as a whole.  

It’s interesting how just one conversation seems to change Ginnie’s perspective. Although her conversation with Eric is also impactful, I believe that hers with Franklin is much more eye opening. She can see that there are more sides to the Graff family's story and wants to learn more. This is one of the reasons why I thought that, in the ending scene, Ginnie kept Franklin’s sandwich in her coat pocket. It serves as a reminder to her conversation with Franklin and her new perspective on the Graff family. (Hopefully the sandwich doesn’t go rotten in her pocket, because that wouldn't bode well for symbolism in the Graff family’s case).