The Forgotten Female in the Works of Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway has often been accused of misogyny in his treatment of female characters (and, perhaps, in his treatment of women in his own life). "It is not fashionable these days to praise the work of Ernest Hemingway," says Frederick Busch. "His women too often seem to be projections of male needfulness" (1). Many of his stories are seen as prototypical bildungsroman stories--stories, usually, of young men coming of age. There are few, if any, stories in the canon of women coming of age, however, and Hemingway is not the first to suffer the wrath of feminist critics. But is this wrath justified?
In his dissertation, Mark G. Newton reviews some of the critical literature that places Hemingway within the misogynist genre. "Cliches [sic] abound," he says. "Hemingway was in search of his manhood (an ignoble quest?); he hated women; he had a "death wish" and a "thin persona"; he was the archpriest of violence, etc." (6). However, Newton sees women in Hemingway's works as the "positive life-directed force which transports the male Hemingway hero away from a debilitating wound" (2), and he places them into "[t]he roles manifested by Hemingway's women in aiding the hero": "Ideal Women," "Sister Guides," "Icons and Dream Visions," "Wicked Women Who Also Serve," "Feminine Points of View," and "Full Cycle." My problem with Newton's approach to the feminine in Hemingway is that Newton seems to accept that, in presenting women as archetypal Eve's, the woman as "help-meet"-type image, that Hemingway is somehow presenting women favorably.
A somewhat similar view is presented by Jeryl J. Prescott in "Liberty for Just(Us): Gender and Race in ...
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... of Melville, Twain, and Hemingway. New York: Peter Lang, 1984.
Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Hemingway's Gender Trouble." American Literature 63:2 (1991): 187-207.
Miller, Linda Patterson. "Hemingway's Women: A Reassessment." Hemingway in Italy and Other Essays. Ed. Robert W,. Lewis. Praeger, 1990.
Newton, Mark G. Beyond the Wound: The Role of Women in Aiding the Hemingway Hero. Dissertation: U of S. Florida, 1985.
Penn Warren, Robert. "Ernest Hemingway," Introduction to Modern Standard Authors edition of A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949.
Prescott, Jeryl J. "Liberty for Just(us): Gender and Race in Hemingway's To Have and Have Not." College Language Association Journal 37:2 (1993): 176-88.
Willingham, Kathy. "Hemingway's The Garden of Eden: Writing with the Body." The Hemingway Review 12:2 (1993): 46-61.
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Flexner, Eleanor (n.d). The History of Woman's Suffrage in America. October 8, 2007, from http://www.history.com/exhibits/woman/herstory.html.
Assadnassab, Sara. "Hemingway´s Depiction of Women in A Farewell to Arms.”. http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1773/2005/117/LTU-CUPP-05117-SE.pdf (accessed April 17, 2013).
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is an interesting piece of literature that has been analyzed and reviewed by many scholars throughout the years. Something that is often brought to attention are the gender roles. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway makes a stronger woman and a more feminine man, this is something that had not yet been seen in literature. A few authors had made female and male characters in their novels that were different than the norm, but none to the extreme of Hemmingway. In Hemingway’s novel, his female character, Brett, does not care about obeying the societal gender role set forth for her during the time period she lives.
After the ratification of the nineteenth amendment, women gained the right to vote in the United States. The amendment also changed women in the United States in different ways. After it was ratified, women were not only gained the right to vote, but began to be a big part of the work force and also made huge strides socially. Women began to make their presence known in the United States.
There were a few core groups responsible for the prohibition movement in the United States. The first movement that comes to mind is the temperance movement, which had been evolving for many decades before the years leading up to prohibition. “American women spearheaded what briefly turned into a nationwide movement, discovering their formidable power for the first time” (Behr, 53). In the early twentieth century, women were just starting to become a serious part of public policy. Suffrage for women was granted after the passing of the eighteenth amendment, but the Teetotalism (complete abstinence from alcohol) platform they adopted was a serious selling point for their movement, and was something that attracted women nationwide to their ideals. The earliest and most notable temperance group in the United States was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Originally organized in Ohio in 1873, the WCTU was “the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching
The movement had reached 1.5 million followers by 1835, but did not see much success in its drive to get rid of alcohol.The group died out during the Civil War, but became a foundation for the many similar movements in the future. The Prohibition movement, sometimes referred to as the dry crusade, was brought back to life in 1869, when the national Prohibition Party was formed, and was then followed other movements such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League. These movements had serious political power, and eventually managed to get the Eighteenth Amendment ratified as well as the Volstead
The 18th amendment, generally known as prohibition or “noble experiment” prohibited the manufacture, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. It was ratified in January 29, 1919 and came into effect a year later. Its intended effect was to eliminate crime and other social problems . However, it failed as it led to a rise in organized crime and worsened other social problems throughout the US, and by 1933 the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment and the prohibition era was over.
Throughout the 20th century there were many influential pieces of literature that would not only tell a story or teach a lesson, but also let the reader into the author’s world. Allowing the reader to view both the positives and negatives in an author. Ernest Hemingway was one of these influential authors. Suffering through most of his life due to a disturbingly scarring childhood, he expresses his intense mental and emotional insecurities through subtle metaphors that bluntly show problems with commitment to women and proving his masculinity to others.
Women were getting tired of not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to make a move to change this. Women got so tired of staying at home while the men worked. Women wanted to get an education. So they fought for their freedom. Abigail Adams said to her husband, “in the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.” John’s reply was, “I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems.” These were said in 1776. The women’s suffrage actually began in 1848, which was the first women’s rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Prominent leaders began campaigning for the right to vote at State and federal levels. Susan B. Anthony was the leader for getting women their rights in the United States. Susan B. Anthony voted in Rochester, NY for the presidential election. This occurred in 1872. She was, “arrested, tried, convicted, and fined $100.” She refused to pay the fine. Supporters of The Equal Rights Amendment would march, rally, petition, and go on hunger strikes.
Ideology really laid the foundation for the Revolution. British citizens, including those in the North American colonies, felt a special sense of pride in their political system. Unlike in other European countries at the time, the English king did not possess absolute control over his country. England has a parliament, and that stood as a check against the king’s power. Many Britons grew up skeptical of a single, authoritarian ruler.
" The Hemingway Review. 15.1 (Fall 1995): p. 27. Literature Resource Center -.
The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway; edited by Scott Donaldson; Cambridge U. P.; New York, NY; 1996
Eby, Carl P. "Hemingway's Fetishism: Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood. Albany: State University of New York Press. As Rpt. in Bauer, Margaret D. "Forget the Legend and Read the Work: Teaching Two Stories by Ernest Hemingway. College Literature, 30 (3) (Summer 2003): 124-37. EBSCOhost.
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.