Themes and analysis
Themes
Many critics place Jack among Hemingway’s «code heroes», though there is disagreement as to whether or not he adheres to the code entirely. Fenton noted in 1952 that Jack fits the ideals of a professional, showing the ability to think and commitment to and knowledge of his sport. His skill and craftsmanship in the ring stands in stark contrast to the brute strength and crude force employed by the slower, heavier Walcott. Fenton suggests that the story «clarified the relationship between courage and professionalism.» Hemingway never mentions courage by name in «Fifty Grand»; «It is apparent, however, that courage is a part of Brennan’s behaviour», and that «Thinking … is what distinguishes the professional.» Martine agrees that «Jack is the consummate professional», but offers the opposite reason: «He is a skilled and trained professional who does not have to think. The code relates to grace under pressure, in pain.»
Philip G. and Rosemary R. Davies read Jack as a code hero, whose courage is partly obscured by the facts of the Britton–Walker fight on which they believe Hemingway based the story. «Brennan’s courage, while real, cannot reverse the impression created by the bulk of the story», they write, unable to find Jack admirable until the final pages. They argue that Hemingway tried to show Jack’s courage by giving him motives other than the obvious monetary one—they cite the statement, «His money was all right and now he wanted to finish it off right to please himself. He didn’t want to be knocked out», as evidence of Hemingway’s attempt—but conclude of Hemingway stories in general, «The code of the hero can be seen most clearly when the courageous action is performed for its own sake.»
Cassandre Meunier notes the emphasis Hemingway places on Jack’s silence throughout the story. She writes, «The impression is that Jack finds confidence in private places: it is not necessary to explain to anyone what is good for him and his family; just shutting his eyes and cutting himself off from the external world gives him the confidence that his choice is—and eventually was—the right one.» As well as a source of confidence, she says, the boxer’s «holding tight» in the early parts of the story prepare him for «holding tight» and finishing the fight in the midst of excruciating pain in the final scenes. «One of the features associated with dignity is control over oneself.»
Robert P. Weeks, in his essay, found in Jackson J. Benson’s collection of critical essays on Hemingway’s works, comments on the machine imagery used during the boxing match itself: «During the first eleven rounds Jack boxes doggedly, mechanically … Jerry also sees Walcott as a mechanism, but of a lower order.» The use of this imagery continues until Walcott fouls Jack. Then, «No longer a machine, Jack is alert, analytical, shrewd …
Walcott remains a machine: he’s been signaled to deliver a low blow; he’s done it; now he stands there baffled as the man he has fouled insists upon fighting on.» Weeks sees a great deal of humor in the story, humor which becomes evident when one takes «Fifty Grand» as the descendant of Hemingway’s more obviously comical «A Matter of Colour». Even with the humor at both boxers’ expense, he concludes that «Jack has done much more than protect his fifty grand; he has, through his quickwittedness and stoicism, prevailed without loss of his self-respect.»
The fix
Most critics and readers conclude that Jack agrees to lose the fight during his meeting with John Collins, Morgan, and Steinfelt. Earl Rovit believes that Jack «breaks [Hemingway’s moral] code in betting against himself.» «There is nothing ‘unethical'», Martine counters, «about getting some small consideration for participation in the game» in Hemingway’s view. James Tackach, on the other hand, argues that Jack did not agree to lose during the meeting with John Collins, Steinfelt, and Morgan.
As evidence he cites Jack’s assertion, «It ain’t crooked. How can I beat him?», the illogicality for Steinfelt and Morgan to pay the underdog to throw the match, and that «If Jack agreed to lose the fight, he would have accepted a flat payment from Steinfelt and Morgan for the loss, and he would not have to risk his own money by laying a bet.» It may also be possible that Steinfelt and Morgan also organized for Walcott to throw the match with the low blow, as John reveals «They certainly tried a nice double-cross.»
Reception
Men Without Women was variously received. Cosmopolitan magazine editor-in-chief Ray Long praised «Fifty Grand», calling it, «one of the best short stories that ever came to my hands…the best prize-fight story I ever read…a remarkable piece of realism.» However, some critics—among them Wilson Lee Dodd, whose article entitled «Simple Annals of the Callous» appeared in the Saturday Review of Literature—found Hemingway’s subjects lacking. Joseph Wood Krutch called the stories in Men Without Women «Sordid little catastrophes» involving «very vulgar people.»
Hemingway responded to the less favorable reviews with a poem published in The Little Review in May 1929:
Valentine
(For a Mr. Lee Wilson Dodd and Any of His Friends Who Want It)
Sing a song of critics
pockets full of lye
four and twenty critics
hope that you will die
hope that you will peter out
hope that you will fail
so they can be the first one
be the first to hail
any happy weakening or sign of quick decay.
(All very much alike, weariness too great,
sordid small catastrophes, stack the cards on fate,
very vulgar people, annals of the callous,
dope fiends, soldiers, prostitutes,
men without a gallus)
Hemingway’s style, on the other hand, received much acclaim. In the New York Times Book Review, Percy Hutchinson praised him for «language sheered to the bone, colloquial language expended with the utmost frugality; but it is continuous and the effect is one of continuously gathering power.» Even Krutch, writing in the Nation in 1927, said of Men Without Women, «It appears to be the most meticulously literal reporting and yet it reproduces dullness without being dull.»
