A Moveable Feast: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

When Hadley and Hemingway return to Paris it is “clear and cold and lovely.” Cafés are open with heated terraces, the streets are beautiful, and the fire in Hemingway’s apartment makes it “a warm and pleasant place to work.” Due to the cold and his work, Hemingway is always hungry, and he buys mandarins and roasted chestnuts as snacks. When he struggles to finish a story, he drinks kirsch (fruity brandy). When he is having trouble beginning a new story, he throws a mandarin peel into the fire, or stands looking out at the Parisian skyline and reassures himself that he has always managed to overcome blocks before, and that all he needs to do is “write one true sentence.” He argues that as long as he writes one true sentence, it is easy to keep going. He decides to write one story about everything he knows, and he finds that this is a good form of discipline.

Even when Hemingway is not writing, whatever story he is working on stays at the back of his mind as he goes about the rest of his life. He hopes to listen, learn, and notice everything about the world around him. Hemingway goes to the Musée du Luxembourg every day to look at the Impressionist paintings by Cézanne, Manet, and Monet. He feels that Cézanne’s paintings are teaching him about writing, but that he is “not articulate enough” to put this lesson into words. After the museum, Hemingway goes to see Gertrude Stein at 27 rue de Fleurus. Stein and the “friend” she lives with (Alice B. Toklas) are “very cordial and friendly,” and their apartment, which is full of paintings, resembles a museum. Stein and Toklas give their guests food, tea, and fruit liqueurs, “which warmed you and loosened your tongue.”

Hemingway notes that Stein looks like an Italian peasant woman and that she has “lovely, thick, alive immigrant hair.” He adds that she talks a lot, particularly about “people and places.” Her partner Alice Toklas is small and dark with hair “cut like Joan of Arc.” Toklas tells Hemingway that she talks to “the wives,” and Hadley and Hemingway feel that the wives are only “tolerated.” However, they nonetheless enjoy their visits at 27 rue de Fleurus. At one point, Stein and Toklas come to visit the Hemingways at their apartment, and Stein critiques Hemingway’s story “Up in Michigan.” She argues that the story is like a picture that the painter isn’t able to hang and which nobody will buy. Hemingway protests, but eventually just replies “I see,” as he avoids arguing with his elders. He adds that Stein is very intelligent and that she has been encouraging him to give up journalism.

Stein also teaches the Hemingways about buying art. She advises them to avoid spending money on clothes in order to be able to afford art, to which Hemingway replies that, no matter how many clothes he doesn’t buy, he still won’t be able to afford Picassos. Stein responds that he should be buying the work of people his own age, “of your own military service group.” She warns that Hemingway should be careful that Hadley doesn’t spend too much money on clothes, as women’s clothes are more expensive; Hemingway notices Hadley eyeing Stein’s own “strange” outfit. On another occasion, Hemingway meets Stein for a walk in the Luxembourg gardens, noting that he can’t remember whether this was before after she’d bought a dog. Stein often shows Hemingway the manuscript pages that she writes and Toklas types up. Writing makes Stein happy, but Hemingway later learns that this happiness depends on achieving publication and “recognition” for her work.

When Hemingway first meets Stein, she had published only “three stories that were intelligible to anyone.” However, she has won many people over with her personality, and critics take an interest in her as a person as much as they do as a writer. At the same time, she has also made important innovations in language, particularly through her use of rhythm and repetition. At this point, however, she craves critical recognition, particularly for the “unbelievably long” The Making of Americans. Hemingway believes that the book starts out “magnificently,” but that it goes on too long and that Stein should have cut it. He mentions that Ford Madox Ford was essentially “forced” to publish it in The Transatlantic Review and that Hemingway himself read the proofs of the manuscript.

Stein then moves on to teaching Hemingway about sex. Hemingway admits Stein thinks he is “a square about sex” and that this is partially because he has “certain prejudices against homosexuality.” Hemingway believes that it is necessary to be ready to kill in order to protect oneself from homosexual advances, but Stein is dismissive of this, claiming that Hemingway is only thinking of “perverts” and “sick people.” They discuss particular gay people they know, though they do not name them. Stein emphasizes that Hemingway doesn’t really know anything about homosexuality and adds that even while gay men are forced to live in shame because of the way they have sex, the opposite is true for lesbians, who can live very happy lives together. Hemingway replies only with “I see,” and—though he assures Stein that he understands what she’s been trying to tell him—he is grateful when the conversation is over and he is able to go home. He believes that Stein thinks he needs to be “cured” of “being young and loving my wife.” At home, he tells Hadley about the conversation.