The motif of physical wounds in Men Without Women often serves as a tangible representation of the characters’ deeper, unspoken psychological suffering. In a world defined by violence, whether in war or sport, bodily harm is an expected consequence, but Hemingway uses it to explore the invisible scars of grief, fear, and alienation. This focus is central to the theme of performing masculinity, as the men are expected to endure their physical pain with stoicism, which forces their emotional suffering even further from view. In “The Undefeated,” Manuel Garcia’s recurring gorings are less significant than his unbreakable compulsion to fight, which repeatedly draws him back to the ring despite his injuries. Similarly, in “In Another Country,” the soldiers’ mechanical therapy for their physical injuries stands in stark contrast to their inability to heal their emotional desolation.

The narrator of “In Another Country” feels his war wound separates him from the other soldiers because it was the result of an accident, not heroism. He is not a true member of their fraternity of suffering because he has not proven his bravery, observing that the decorated Italian officers “were like hunting-hawks; and I was not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted” (46). This distinction reveals that, for the narrator and the other soldiers, the significance of a wound lies not only in the injury itself but also in the circumstances under which it was received. The narrator’s isolation demonstrates that psychological wounds—fear, inadequacy, and the terror of death—can be as isolating as physical injuries and may persist even when physical recovery is possible. The major’s withered hand is ultimately overshadowed by the grief he experiences after losing his wife, a wound for which there is no machine or therapy.