Love and its Misfortunes in “Up In Michigan”
This short story by Ernest Hemingway is mainly from the point of view of Liz Coates and how she is fascinated by the blacksmith Jim Gilmore who has just moved to her town. He is a blacksmith and by nature they are tough and masculine and with Liz being the complete opposite of him by working in a kitchen and cooking all day which is considered quite feminine is attracted to Jim. Jim had also noticed Liz as the town was small and therefore everyone must have had seen or interacted with one another at some point but that was as far as it went as Jim was not as concerned or fascinated with Liz as she was with him. Until the night after Jim came back from his hunting trip nothing would suggest that Jim would have paid more attention to how Liz felt about him, due to Jim being intoxicated this pattern changed. Liz knew that her interaction with Jim was not morally correct, when he touched and felt her but in her mind she knew that this was probably the only chance she had with Jim paying attention to her which she craved as he was not in his senses. The night would however turn ugly for Liz as it would come to a conclusion she probably would regret with Jim passed out on top of her with him probably not remembering his actions or how he probably forced himself upon Liz which was not how Liz would have imagined their first night together. We learn from this story that actions and decisions taken out of love do not always end the way