Ernest Hemingway
could ernest hemingway be considered a tragic figure in contemporary literature?
Looking at Ernest Hemingway's past, you'd see that he lived a very tough, strict childhood. He was raised under the thoughts that if you had strong religion, hard work, physical fitness, and self determination you would be very successful no matter what field you were to go into. This made his relationship with his parents sort of complex. It was more of a difficult relationship with his mother. She was demanding, and was also known to be over bearing. She didn't accept Ernest as being a boy, so she frequently would treat him as a female baby doll and dress him as one as well. He didn't have the 'ideal' childhood as normally wanted. I believe
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This could possibly be a cause to his depression. An example of the mental torture he was put through with his mother was on his birthday. For his birthday, after he was moved out, his mother sent him a 'present.' She mailed him a cake, the gun that his father had used to kill himself, along with a letter. The letter explained that a mothers life was like a bank. 'Every child that is born... enters the world with a large and prosperous bank account, seemingly inexhaustible.' She continued in the letter that he should replenish what he has withdrawn, and wrote out all the specific ways in which Ernest should be making 'deposits to keep the account in good standing.' His mother could be perceived as androgynous, which means having both female and male type qualities or even personalities. In a few of the books Hemingway wrote, he gives someone the impression that he hated his mother. He referred to her as a 'dominating shrew,' meaning she was selfish and only thought of herself. His mother considered herself pure and proper, and became very upset when anything 'disturbed' her view of the world as beautiful. Anything painful, or disgusting, she thought was not lady like. His childhood was very difficult and it stuck with …show more content…
He lived a sort of rejected adulthood. When he was younger he dreamed of being a boxer. This dream followed him. He had bad eye sight and a bad knee, so this made it so he couldn't be a boxer. In 1918 when he graduated from high school he enlisted in the army. He didn't pass the physical due to the eye sight problem, so he was assigned to be an ambulance driver. All he wanted to do was fight though, but since he didn't pass he couldn't legally fight. If this happened to any other person they'd feel the same as Hemingway was probably feeling, which was very sad and both frustrated with himself that he didn't pass. This added on to his depression. Since he wasn't happy driving the ambulance, he posed as a soldier and lead people into battle with him. Eventually everything was uncovered and they found out that he was posing as a soldier and kicked him out of the army where he then left for Paris with his new wife, first of four wives, Hadley Richardson. He had one child with her and named him Jack. He later divorced Hadley in 1927 and married his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. He had two children, Patrick and Gregory. During the second marriage, his father committed suicide and this lead Hermingway to become much more depressed. He cheated on his second wife and divorced her marrying Martha Gellhorn. Martha spent all of his money, and treated him very poorly. He finally divorced her, and during WWII he married his final wife
Hemingway refuses to romanticize his character. Being “tough” people, such as boxers, bullfighters, gangsters, and soldiers, they are depicted as leading a life more or less without thought. The world is full of such people, and it is unrealistic to put sublime thoughts into their heads.
York. She was the fourth of six children. Later she would meet and marry Henry B.
...She does not act like the other girls, most of the time yet, she does want Krebs to fit into to a role -- her beau -- and fulfil obligations -- going to her indoor baseball game. Those two attributes together cause Krebs to be fonder of his sister than anyone else and at the same time push her away. Krebs even pushes away his mother because she tries to diligently to convince him to conform. Thus causing Krebs’s to say he does not love her, the ultimate form of rejection a child can do to a parent. Due to guilt Krebs does agree to conform but struggles with his decision. Ernest Hemingway’s character Harold Krebs tries to reject conforming to society but in the end he realizes that he can not escape it and grapple with reality.
The first images of struggle and death are seen in chapter 9 when Frederic is wounded. Up to this point in the story Hemingway had portrayed a very serene, pastoral setting and existence for the characters. It is here, though, that this comes crashing down. Hemingway is showing the horrors of war. War is not a glorious and colorful event; it is a dirty and base thing. This is the first hint that the romantic notions Frederic clings to might prove false. There is suggestion here that human existence is fairly tragic.
Ernest Hemmingway is one of the greatest writers of all time. Like many great authors he was influenced by the world in which he lived. The environment that surrounded him influenced Hemmingway. These included such things as serving in the war and living in post war areas where people went to forget about the war. Another influence on his writings was his hobbies. He loved the great outdoors. He spent a lot of his time deep sea fishing and enjoying bull fighting. These influences had an impact on Hemmingway and they were expressed in his writing.
... scarred as a child, that he lived in fear of women all of his life. He feared commitment and feared being dubbed a coward by most. Almost as if he was brainwashed, he pushed himself to the brink of depression to prove his masculinity to others. However, the truth is that he was actually trying to prove this notion to himself, hoping that it would one day reverse the effects of his traumatic childhood experience. Eventually, He drinks himself into a stupor and at the age of 61, and on July 2nd commits suicide. His fears, his depression, and a severe addiction to alcohol all had gotten ahold of him, and eventually made him believe that he had nothing else to live for (Biography Channel 1). Ernest Hemingway was one of the most influential authors of his time. Whose literature and life was swayed by a traumatic childhood, a dreadful mother, and a manipulated mentality.
This story shows a love story within a war time setting. Many people believe that
Ernest Hemingway was a great American author whom started his career humbly in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the ripe, young age of seventeen. Once the United States joined World War One, Hemingway deemed it fit to join a volunteer ambulance service. During this time Hemingway was wounded, and decorated by the Italian Government for his noble deeds. Once he completely recovered, he made his way back to the United States. Upon his arrival he became a reporter for the American and Canadian newspapers and was sent abroad to cover significant events. For example, he was sent to Europe to cover the Greek revolution. During his early adulthood, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris. This is known as the time in his life in which he describes in two of his novels; A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises the latter of the two being his first work. Hemingway was able to use his experiences of serving in the front during the war and his experience of being with other expatriates after the war to shape both of these novels. He was able to successful write these novels due to his past experience with working for newspapers. His experience with the newspaper seemed to be far more beneficial than just supplying him with an income, with the reporting experience under his belt he also was able to construct another novel that allowed him to sufficiently describe his experiences reporting during the Civil War; For Whom the Bell Tolls. Arguably his most tremendous short novel was a about an old fisherman’s journey and the long, lonely struggle with a fish and the sea with his victory being in defeat.
he told them the size of the marlin. This has to be one of the
Ernest Hemingway pulled from his past present experiences to develop his own thoughts concerning death, relationships, and lies. He then mixed these ideas, along with a familiar setting, to create a masterpiece. One such masterpiece written early in Hemingway's career is the short story, "Indian Camp." "Indian Camp" was originally published in the collection of "in Our Time" in 1925. A brief summary reveals that the main character, a teenager by the name of Nick, travels across a lake to an Indian village. While at the village Nick observes his father, who is a doctor, deliver a baby to an Indian by caesarian section. As the story continues, Nick's father discovers that the newborn's father has committed suicide. Soon afterward Nick and his father engage in a discussion about death, which brings the story to an end. With thought and perception a reader can tell the meaning of the story. The charters of Nick and his father resemble the relationship of Hemingway and his father. Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, a middle class suburb, under the watchful eye of his parents, Ed and Grace Hemingway. Ed Hemingway was a doctor who "occasionally took his son along on professional visits across Walloon Lake to the Ojibway Indians" during summer vacations (Waldhorn 7). These medical trips taken by Ernest and Ed would provide the background information needed to introduce nick and his father while on their medical trip in "Indian Camp." These trips were not the center point of affection between Ed and Ernest, but they were part of the whole. The two always shared a close father-son bond that Hemingway often portrayed in his works: Nick's close attachment to his father parallels Hemingway's relationship with Ed. The growing boy finds in the father, in both fiction and life, not only a teacher-guide but also a fixed refuge against the terrors of the emotional and spiritual unknown as they are encountered. In his father Ernest had someone to lean on (Shaw 14). In "Indian Camp," nick stays in his father's arms for a sense of security and this reinforces their close father-son relationship. When Nick sees the terror of death, in the form of suicide, his father is right there to comfort him. From this we are able to see how Nick has his father to, physically and mentally, "lean" on, much like Hemingway did (S...
Edison subsequently married Mary Stillwell, one of his employees at the lab. He had three children from her. Unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived, as Stillwell died of brain tumor at the age of 29.
Hemingway exemplifies his fatherly traits on his characters, in his literary works. He does this in “Indian Camp” in the situation between Nick and his father. Nick and his father start the book with a common relationship that all fathers share with their children. However, not much information is given on Nick’ father. Nick sees his father as someone who will protect him, however as the story progresses Nick realizes that his father isn’t as great as Nick had previously perceived him to be. Nick also grows as the story develops; he becomes more emotionally detached from his father, subtly in that he sits on the opposite side of the boat from his father on their return journey from the Indian Camp. Nick’s father thus becomes a paradox for what a proper father should be, perfectly replicating Hemingway’s own parenting style. Hemingway also personifies his traits on the relationship that Santiago and Manolin share. Santiago isn’t the birth fa...
Stewart, Matthew. "Why Does Mother Elliot Cry? Cornelia's Sexuality In "Mr. And Mrs. Elliot." Hemingway Review 24.1 (2004): 81-89. Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. Explores the story “Mr. And Mrs. Elliot” in detail. It talk’s about Hemingway’s writing style in the story and how some elements strongly support the satire that Hemingway tried to put across. Article also put forward the theme of masculinity.
A Farewell to Arms has many similarities between Henry and Hemingway; the first noticeable one is that Henry, like Hemingway, was an American in the Italian army. Henry was an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, just like Hemingway was. Thomas Putnam stated in his article on Hemingway that "during the First World War, Ernest Hemingway volunteered to serve in Italy as an ambulance driver with the American Red Cross. In June 1918, while running a mobile canteen dispensing chocolate and cigarettes for soldiers, he was wounded by Austrian mortar fire." This is comparable to Henry’s experiences in A Farewell to Arms. Anders Hallengren drew the connection that both men, real and fictional, were one of the first Americans wounded in World War I. "There is a parallel in Hemingway's life, connected with the occasion when he was seriously wounded at midnight on July 8, 1918, at Fossalta di Piave in Italy and nearly died. He was the first American to be wounded in Italy during World War I." A...
Hemingway characterizes his heroes as people with strength, courage, and bravery, but even heroes have their flaws. For example, Frederic Henry, the protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, survives an artillery bombardment that kills one of his own men and badly injures him. Hemingway shows the strength of this character through his survival of the bombardment and full recovery of his wounds. Hemingway portrays Frederic as a hero through this strength. In addition, Fredric, being fully aware of the dangers from both the enemy and the Italian's, who mistake him and his drivers for German's, kill one of them, and then threaten to execute Frederic, who escapes. In this daring escape, Frederic presents his courage and bravery in a dangerous situation. Hemingway demonstrates that although one of Frederic's men dies, he is still courageous in that his escape was successful. Frederic Henry's potential as a hero is shown by Hemingway's illustration of events that depict Frederic's use of his strength, his courage, and his bravery (Lewis 46).