"Under the Ridge" is truly a dismal story. It involves melancholy, infected limbs, and a bleak landscape, all of which can promote a vision of the color yellow. Yet, the "yellow" that the story is most concerned with is that of cowardice. Indeed, on the second page there is an argument between soldiers about the presence of fear in battle, with one claiming it as normal as "the truth" and the other denying it. A little later, the stories of Paco and the Frenchman further emphasize the presence of a tension between bravey and cowardice. Paco became fearful and tried to find a way out of the situation, yet he ultimately met the same end, only in worse condition and not expecting to die. His cowardice was severely punished. The Frenchman, too, was punished, yet his story creates an interesting parallel to bravery. He was described as walking away in a dignified manner with his head held high. He was not ashamed of leaving, and the narrator recognizes that the Frenchman saw that what they were doing was pointless. They had little chance of winning, and it made no sense to stay and die in an unsuccessful campaign. He saw the "idiocy" of the war, and decided to walk away. The most interesting part of this story is that the narrator sees the Frenchman, rather than a coward, "as a man."(466) His actions were not seen as cowardly, but as the actions a man would take.
This reminded me of part of a book I read, called "The Things They Carried". In this book, there is a story of a boy who was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. He did not want to go, and tried to run away to Canada. However, he returned because he claimed that he did not have the bravery to deny his being drafted. This was so counter-intuitive to me, because it had always seemed that going off to war was the brave, patriotic thing to do. Yet, it makes sense that everyone was expecting that. The boy's desire to run from a war that he saw as pointless, in his view, was the brave thing to do because it matched his beliefs. By going along with what everyone expected him to do, he was falling to others' conceptions and being a coward to opinion. I see the story of the Frenchman as much the same; by walking away from something that he did not believe in and that he knew would kill him without purpose, he was being brave. Staying would represent a non-action, and would mean that he did not have the courage to act on his feelings. It is a strange approach, especially when taken with the fact that both he and Paco died for their desertion, yet it is an interesting view to look at.
Aside from a theme of the tension between bravery and cowardice, I believe that "Under the Ridge" is an anti-war story. It may differ from some of Hemingway's other war pieces in that it is more impersonal as told from an outsider's (the writer/photographer's) perspective, yet the atrocities and ill effects of war are still portrayed. Death is the most obvious detriment, with Paco's story making an impact. He was injured, and, just when he had hope of recovery and carrying on, he was killed. The Frenchman was also killed when he tried to walk away, just when he walked over the ridge and thought he was on his way to freedom. Last of the prominent deaths was that of the narrator's friend, who was killed two months after leaving the battle detailed in the story. Here, he had thought that as writers/photographers they would be able to "write afterwards," or save their stories until a later time. He assumed that they would live and be able to escape the same deaths that the soldiers faced. However, despite this fact he was still killed. All of these stories have the same trait in common; the victims had all thought that they would be able to escape, yet this hope proved futile. In essence, there is no escaping death and the tragedy of loss derived from the war. The narrator states this concisely when he says, "The nearest any man was to victory that day was proably the Frenchman who came, with his head held high, walking out of the battle. But his victory only lasted until he had walked halfway down the ridge."(469) If the closest person to victory ended up dead, then that means that no one escaped or was victorious. The tragedy of war affected everyone involved, without discrimination or exception.
Another, less prominent, anti-war message is seen in the actions of the Extremaduran. He hates all foreigners, and we come to find out that this is because of the way in which he saw the Russians treat Paco. Also, he outlines the wrongs which other nationalities have dealt his people, which namely deal with war crimes such as rape and pillaging. This shows that the war made people xenophobic and distrustful of others. It led to a decrease in world harmony and an increase in hatred and disullisionment with the ability to find peace. Truly, this shows that the war created conflict that would rise above the duration of the war and would last throughout the lives of those involved.
