"One Reader Writes" Summary

A young wife writes a letter to a medical column in a newspaper. Her husband recently served in Shanghai for three years. When he comes home, he tells his wife that he has syphilis. He wants her to live with him, but she wonders if it is safe to live with him again. She writes that he is getting treatment for the disease, but that she does not really know anything about the disease.

"One Reader Writes" Analysis

In one of Hemingway's many commentaries on sexual repression in America, he shows the ignorance of the young wife. She cannot spell syphilis correctly and does not know what it is. It can be assumed that, because her husband tells her the name of his disease, he also believes that she does not know what it is.