Ernest Hemingway Essay

1197 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The roles of women in literature

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.
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero, Illinois. Clarence and Grace Hemingway raised Ernest in the suburbs of Chicago and Northern Michigan. He spent most of his young years with his father, where he learned things that are necessary for a “man” to know. This included hunting, fishing, and appreciating the outdoors (“Early Years” 1). This being the origin of his notion that to be a man, you must follow masculine stereotypes.
His mother on the other hand had a different view of Ernest. Grace would take Ernest and dress him up as a girl, her excuse being that she always wanted him to be a girl. Being treated as a girl by his mother and then being made into a man by his father, had taken a toll on Ernest. He created an odd hatred/fear of women, especially towards his mother (Mental Floss 1). “He hated his mother, with reason. She was solid hell. A big false lying woman; everything about her was virtuous and untrue…” (Brainy Quote 1). Others around his mother could even notice that she did not treat her son properly, and that the hatred he contained for her, although unhealthy, was honestly reasonable.
Once it was time for Ernest to go to high school, he quickly be...

... middle of paper ...

... 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.

Show More
Related

  • Ernest Hemingway's Essay 'By Flannery O' Connor

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the passage a servant describes the class difference between himself and his masters. He is discontent servant whose ideas about his masters portrays his belittling and resentful attitude towards them.

    Read More

  • Abortion in Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants

    2463 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Search for Innocence in American Modernism

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume II. Edited by Paul Lauter et al. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991: 1208-1209. Hemingway, Ernest. A.

    Read More

  • Annotated Bibliography A Farewell To Arms By Ernest Hemingway

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    Donaldson’s publication syndicates Ernest Hemingway’s biography with literary criticism, and in doing so, delivers a sense of the foremost themes in Hemingway’s life, and work, by drawing on biographical material, extracts from Hemingway’s letters, and different works published fiction. I will be utilizing this source to further discuss and support Hemingway’s writing styles throughout A Farewell to Arms.

    Read More

  • A Man's versus a Woman's Mind in Ernest Hemingway's Up in Michigan

    3645 Words  | 8 Pages

    We notice, right from the beginning of his life, that Ernest Hemingway was confronted to two opposite ways of thinking, the Manly way, and the Woman way. This will be an important point in his writing and in his personal life, he will show a great interest in this opposition of thinking. In this short story, Hemingway uses simple words, which turn out to become a complex analysis of the male and female minds. With this style of writing, he will show us how different the two sexes’ minds work, by confronting them to each other in a way that we can easily capture their different ways of working. The scene in which the characters are set in is simple, and by the use of the simplicity of the words and of the setting, he is able to put us in-front of this dilemma, he will put us in front of a situation, and we will see it in both sexes point of view, which will lead us to the fundamental question, why are our minds so different?

    Read More

  • A Farewell to Arms

    1567 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Illinois, in a suburb of Chicago, where he also grew up. Hemingway would refer to it, as a town of ‘wide lawns and narrow minds.’ He was raised with the strict values of hard work, strong religion, and self-determination. He was taught that if one possessed these qualities, he would be successful in whatever field he chose in life.

    Read More

  • Hemingway and Symbolism

    2178 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway was raised with the conservative Midwestern values of strong religion, hard work, physical fitness and self determination; if one adhered to these parameters, he was taught, he would be ensured of success in whatever field he chose . As a boy, he was taught by his father to hunt and fish. When he wasn't hunting or fishing his mother taught him the finer points of music. Hemingway never had a knack for music and suffered through choir practices and cello lessons, however the musical knowledge he acquired from his mo...

    Read More

  • A Look into Ernest Hemingway's Childhood

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on the morning of July 21, 1899. He was born in the house of his grandfather, Ernest Hall, on his mother's side. Both of his grandfathers influenced the character of Ernest Hemingway as it developed. Ernest Hall, at the time of little Ernest's birth, was widowed and living in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb about ten miles from Chicago. Hall was a veteran of the Civil War, in which he fought valiantly before he was shot in the leg, but, out of respect and hatred of killing, did not allow anyone to speak of it in his presence. He later tried to commit suicide with a gun he kept under his pillow but was thwarted by Ernest's father who had removed the bullets. According to Jeffrey Meyers, "Ernest, who was six at the time, thought it was a cruel thing for his father to have done." Ernest's other grandfather was Anson Hemingway, who had also fought in the War, and also lived in Oak Park, where Ernest's parents met.

    Read More

  • A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, to Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway and the second oldest out of 6 children. Hemingway's childhood pursuits such as hunting and sports fostered the interests that would blossom into literary achievements. In 1918, during World War I, Hemingway served as a Red Cross volunteer in Italy, driving an ambulance and working at a canteen. "After working in Italy for six weeks, he was seriously wounded by a fragm...

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast

    2123 Words  | 5 Pages

    When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...

    Read More

  • Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hemingway is not afraid to speak his mind, whether in person on on paper. He shares many of his life experiences in his other novels. It’s apparent he enjoys writing about the things he knows. Like most war survivors, war changes his outlook on life . Hemingway’s parents did not understand the psychological impact the war had on him and it’s sad because most parents don’t. Many veteran’s today are still suffering from the negative impacts from war and most of them will continue to suffer like others until death. Unfortunately there are no easy answers when it come to war.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in a small community of Oak Park, Illinois. He was the second child out of six, with four sisters and one brother. The area Ernest grew up in was a very conservative area of Illinois and was raised with values of strong religion, hard work, physical fitness and self-determination. His household was a very strict one that didn’t allow any enjoyment on Sundays and disobedience was strictly punished. Ernest’s father taught him good morals and values that he if he followed that he would be good in life. His father also taught him to hunt and fish around the Lake Michigan area and to love nature. The family would spend their summers in the wilderness and their winters back near Chicago. For the rest of his life Hemingway remained an avid fisherman and never lived far form a fishing hole. The outdoors is where he created a lot of his work, and a place where he got a lot of his inspiration from.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Hemingway and Frederic in A Farewell to Arms

    1706 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star after graduating from high school in 1917.  During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver in the Italian infantry and was wounded just before his 19th birthday.  Hospitalized, Hemingway fell in love with an older nurse.  Later, while working in Paris as a correspondent for the Toronto Star, he became involved with the expatriate literary and artistic circle surrounding Gertrude Stein.  During the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway served as a correspondent on the loyalist side. He fought in World War II and then settled in Cuba in 1945. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.  After his expulsion from Cuba by the Castro regime, he moved to Idaho.  In his life, Hemingway married four times and wrote numerous essays, short stories and novels.  The effects of Hemingway's lifelong depressions, illnesses and accidents caught up with him. In July 1961, he committed suicide in Ketchum, Idaho.  What remains, are his works, the product of a talented author.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway's Writing

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Earnest Hemingway’s work gives a glimpse of how people deal with their problems in society. He conveys his own characteristics through his simple and “iceberg” writing style, his male characters’ constant urge to prove their masculinity.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    During his life, Ernest Hemingway has used his talent as a writer in many novels, nonfiction, and short stories, and today he is recognized to be maybe "the best-known American writer of the twentieth century" (Stories for Students 243). In his short stories Hemingway reveals "his deepest and most enduring themes-death, writing, machismo, bravery, and the alienation of men in the modern world" (Stories for Students 244).

    Read More

More about Ernest Hemingway Essay

Open Document