Early Life of Ernest Hemingway - Essay Example

26 June Ernest Hemingway Introduction Ernest Hemingway is one of the most renowned and revered Americanauthors of the twentieth century. In the period from the World War I up to the World War II, his writings mirrored his love for adventure, thoughts, and experiences in the wars. The writings provide storylines in a chronological order. Even though the stories are fictional, they reflect the prevailing happenings in his life and the world at that time. This assignment briefly discusses his life experiences, the historical nature of his works, criticism, and my opinion of his writings. Early Life Ernest Hemingway was born in Illinois on July 21, 1899. His mother’s musical interests did not influence him as much as his father’s love for the outdoors. This spirit of adventure would later be visible in his writings (Boon 9). In high school, he edited the school newspaper Kansas City Star. He participated in the World War I for the American Red Cross as a bus driver and was injured in 1918 after an attack. After the World War I, he returned to the United States of America and met Sherwood Anderson, and in 1921 he married Hadley Richardson. A short time later he moved to Paris, France, as a correspondent of the Star. Their stay in Paris coincided with the publication of Three Stories and Ten. Hemingway wrote the drafts In our Time in 1923 and later published it in 1924. In mid-1923, the family returned to Toronto where he rejoined the Star, but he went back to Paris in 1924. In Paris, he met Gertrude Stein, and this ushered him to the world of artists and authors of the ‘lost generation’, giving an inspiration to the novel The Sun Also Rises (Bloom 11). Literary Career Death in the Afternoon The novel starts with Hemingway talking about his love for bull fighting after being introduced to the sport by Gertrude Stein. He is initially skeptical about bull fighting, as he assumes that it would cause the death of horses. This novel is a nonfiction account of Hemingway’s observation of bull fighting in Spain from the 1920’s to the 1930’s. The book gives a vivid explanation of bullfighting in Spain and his life. “The bull fight is not a sport in the Anglo Saxon sense word that is it is not an equal contest or an attempt at an equal contest between a bull and a man. Rather it is a tragedy the death of the bull which is played, more or less well, by the bull and the man involved in which there is a danger for the man but certain death for the animal” (Hemingway, “Death in the Afternoon” 22). The Old Man and the Sea This story is set in Cuba where Santiago, a fisherman, sets out to fish but fails to catch anything. His young apprentice, Manolin, is convinced by his parents to leave Santiago and go fishing in another area. Nevertheless, Manolin continues to help Santiago. Later on Santiago goes further away from his usual fishing waters, releases his fishing gear deep into the sea, hooks into a marlin, and the fish pulls his fishing boat. The fishing experience goes wrong, and he endures a lot of pain while holding the fishing equipment. Blood appears in the waters, attracting sharks; he kills them but they eat the marlin; nevertheless, he takes the skeletons to his ramshackle. The following day fellow fishermen gather around his boat in amazement and Manolin is excited upon seeing Santiago safe in bed. The story depicts bravery of Santiago, who ventures out into the sea despite having caught no fish in eighty four days. Despite the difficulties Santiago endures and conquers, the victory of sea and sharks is the ultimate point in the story. Our Time This is a collection of fifteen short stories. In the first part, Nick Adams is brought into an Indian Camp by his father, and a woman gives birth there. Later, Nick’s father argues with an Indian. Nick Adam’s love life follows that of Nick, and his friend Bill drinks at Bill’s house. In chapter five, Nick is thrown off a train and meets an old friend of his. Thereafter, a soldier falls in love with a nurse called Luz. The next story still talks about an ex-soldier who finds it hard to cope with civilian life. Chapter eight focuses on a man on a journey from Budapest to Switzerland in a first person narration. Chapter nine revolves around a couple of Mr. and Mrs. Elliot. The tenth chapter, ‘In the Cat in the Rain’, an American couple stays in an Italian hotel overlooking a war monument. In chapter eleven, a young couple in Italy goes fishing with Peduzzi an ex- soldier. Chapter twelve focuses on Nick Adams and his friend George on a cross-country skiing trip. Both chapters fourteen and fifteen talk about Nick Adam after his return from war and subsequent fishing expeditions. This dialogue from Indian Camp is very characteristic of Hemingway due to its pithiness, depth, and significance of the issues discussed. “Do ladies always have such a hard time having babies?” Nick said. “No, that was very, very exceptional.” “Why did he kill himself, Daddy?’’ ‘I don’t know, Nick. He couldn’t stand things, I guess.” “Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?” (“Indian Camp” 95-96). This collection provides an account of the war time in easily written language; it focuses on relationships between women and men while at the same time considers masculinity with regard to sports. Critical Review Critics assert that Hemingway was unoriginal and humorless in his writing; this may strike one as unintelligent (Fuchs 431). This notion is further supported by his old style of writing. In Death in the Afternoon, he mentions Cervantes, a writer who wrote before the nineteenth century. Other earlier writers mentioned include Fielding, Tom Jones, and Joseph Andrews. One earlier assumption of Hemingway’s work is that he focused predominantly on macho masculine characters by depicting women role as subsidiary. Feminists attacked his work based on this wrong perception. Kumar disagrees on this notion in his article The Question of Gender, Power and Possession in Ernest Hemingway as quoted by Raman. However, a critical review of this view is seen as flawed. The female characters are more rational on issues of gender and authority. Female characters enforce their supremacy over the male characters. This is visible in The Sun Also Rises; Brett appears to be dominant even though the narrator is male (Raman 112). Another critical review of Hemingway is that he juxtaposes such genres as pastoral and tragedy (Lindsay 455). Prior to his death, he wrote a letter to a friend’s son and commented that he was fit and happy; there is doubt whether that was the reality, since he later took away his own life. The difficulties facing his life at this point in time and the day to day struggle are ironical given his macho depiction of male characters in writing. Maybe, the countryside environment suited him at this point, but his inner struggles and thoughts were hidden. Critical acclaims and celebrations of Hemingway as an American literature icon are many. Nevertheless, he was interested in the outdoors and participated in the World War I. His literary work had an immense impact on the American scene in the twentieth century. Americans overlook the fact that his love for the outdoors led to the depiction of stories set in distant lands. Another criticism against the works of Hemingway is that his characters are mainly his own reflection; in Green Hills of Africa, Death in the Afternoon, and To Have and Have Not, the main character Harry Morgan accomplishes the thoughts of Ernest in his writings. The characters in his novels engage in such dialogues that would be impossible in real life. This might not be clearly visible, since he uses repetition for emphasis. He depicts emotional detachment where emotions are innermost and without any public display. Loyalty to friends is seen as better than the system of belief in the world. This analogy is mentioned when one fishes in cold waters. The significance of life to Hemingway appears almost non-existent. In my view, he flirts with the theme of death as if it were an ordinary thing. As opposed to other literature giants, Hemingway falls short of characterization. His characters tend to be fairly straightforward with less insight in their lives; the characters appear monotonous and almost predictable. He altered happenings in his life, so his works are not entirely fictional. The debate as to whether his depiction of macho characters symbolized his troubled thoughts becomes apparent after one reads several novels. In the novel The Garden of Eden the dual issue of fear of loss of power by male characters and liberation of female sexuality comes up (Hewson 170). His characters seem to lack inner experience of love and trust. In The Sun Also Rises, even though Jake and Brett love each other, lack of defined roles in the story leads to mistrust (Hewson 171). His depiction of women shows a remarkable change in the strong female characters in The Garden of Eden. “In those days only a few people had ever come to the Mediterranean in the summertime, and no one came to le Grau du Roi except a few people from the Nimes. There was no casino and no entertainment and except in the hottest months when people came to swim there was no one at the hotel. People did not wear fishermen’s shirts and this girl that was the first he had ever seen wearing one” (“The Garden of Eden” 6). In this part, we learn that David Bourne and his new wife Catherine are on a honeymoon. Later Life A safari to Africa motivated the publication of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Green Hills of Africa. During his time in the Spanish civil war, there was a publication of To Have and Have Not in 1937. In 1940, he divorced Pauline and married the writer Marta Gelhorn; they visited China, settled in Cuba, and published For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway served in the Caribbean in the U.S Navy; he later went to Europe, serving as a war correspondent for the allies in the struggle for the emancipation of Paris. Divorce later followed, and he took a new wife, Mary Welsh, who wrote for Time magazine; they lived in Venice and then in Cuba. The 1950 publication of Across the River and into the Trees received little applause. Nevertheless, the subsequent 1953 publication of The Old Man and the Sea earned him a Pulitzer Prize and later a Nobel Prize for Literature. While in Africa, he suffered two plane clashes; he also suffered depression (Bloom 11). The communist revolution in Cuba led to his displacement from the country. Later on, he moved to Idaho; in 1960, his health worsened, and he succumbed to gunshot wounds in 1961. My Impression In his writings, Hemingway provides insights into his experiences while at the same time inadvertently shows his fears. This is visible to readers if they focus on courage and perseverance during war time, fishing expeditions, and hunting. He tries to camouflage his fear of failure, but there is a sense of feeling that he was not that courageous as portrayed by the characters in his stories. Even though he had near brushes with death during the war and suffered plane mishaps, he brought his life to an abrupt end. There is no doubt that Hemingway had such an impact on literature due to his style of writing. The characters in his stories get into terrible situations both physically and emotionally, and this had the effect of engaging the reader. The characters bring into play emotions and strong reactions, so it is easy to remember them. His storytelling skills were an asset probably because of his previous work as a journalist. Journalists are observant as seen in his attention to detail in his stories. Conclusion Hemingway had a considerable impact on the American literature scene with his easy writing style, which helps readers easily grasp his ideas. The man lived a remarkably eventful life, and his death led to more scrutiny of his work. His legendary status still exists, though people may criticize his earlier works as distinctly macho. His own interpretation of heroism probably led him to take his own life rather than endure pain when death becomes liberating. Bibliography Bloom, Harold. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2000. 10-13. Print. Boon, Kevin Alexander. Earnest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises and Other Works. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2008. 9-15. Print. Fuchs, Daniel. Ernest Hemingway, literary Critic, American Literature, 1965. 431:451.Print. Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1926. 22. Print. ---. The Garden of Eden, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. 5-6. Print. ---. “Indian Camp.” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway .New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002. 95-96. Print. Hewson, Marc. “A Matter of Love or Death: Hemingway’s Developing Psychosexuality in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’”. Studies in the Novel, 2004. 170-184. Print. Lindsay, Creighton. “Hemingway’s Nexus of Pastoral and Tragedy”. CLA Journal 43.4 (2000): 452-478. Print. Raman, Meenakshi. “The Question of Gender, Power and Possession in Ernest Hemingway”. Critical Perspectives in American Literature. Atlantic Publishers, 2005.Print Read More