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A portrait of the artist as a young man characters
A portrait of the artist as a young man characters
Masculinity in Ernest Hemingway’s novels
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Ernest Hemingway’s Portrayal of Masculinity
When thinking of masculinity in literature, one author has who has become synonymous with manliness comes to mind, Ernest Hemingway. Critics have spent countless hours studying his writing in order to gain insight into his world of manly delights, including his views on sex, war, and sport. His views can be seen through his characters, his themes and even his style of writing.
The characters in Hemingway’s stories reveal much about how he feels about men and the role they should play in society. Most of Hemingway’s male characters can be split into one of two groups. The first of which is the “Code” Hero. This is the tough, macho guy who chooses to live his life by following a “code of honor, courage, chivalry, honestly, and the ability to bear pain with resistance and dignity, and does not whine when defeated” (Scott, 217). This hero is Hemingway’s ideal man, whom every man should want to become. Robert Penn Warren writes of the “code” hero:
[Hemingway’s] heroes are not squealers, welchers, compromisers, or cowards, and when they confront defeat they realize that the stance they take, the stoic endurance, the stiff upper lip means a kind of victory. If they are to be defeated they are defeated upon their own terms; some of them have even courted their defeat; and certainly they have maintained, even in the practical defeat, an ideal of themselves – some definition of how a man should behave, formulated or unformulated – by which they have lived. They represent some notion of a code, some notion of honor, that makes a man a man, and that distinguishes him from people who merely follow their random impulses and who are, by consequence, “messy.” (Warren, 79)
Hemingway also seems to associate acts of violence with masculinity. Nathan Scott Jr. writes of Hemingway’s manliest characters:
Whatever they do, whether it be bullfighting or fishing or prizefighting or hunting lions in the African bush or blowing up bridges as a military saboteur – is done with consummate skill and with pride of craft; they are tough and competent: they can be counted on in a tight squeeze, and they do not cheat or squeal or flinch at the prospect of danger. (Scott, 217)
Examples of the “code” hero in Hemingway’s work include Manuel the bullfighter, in “The Undefeated” he fights with a noble dignity even when he is je...
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...lso the idea that because the hero lives by his code, he is able to “live properly in the world of violence, disorder, and misery in which he inhabits” (Baker, 15). The young waiter who hopes to one-day become a noble bullfighter in “The Capital of the World” illustrates this point. After performing gallantly, he takes his defeat with a sense of pride and chivalry allowing him to die the only real death in Hemingway’s mind, the death of a real man.
Sources
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner’s, 1969.
Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel. New York: Criterion Books,
1960. 304-09.
Strychancz, Thomas. “The Sort of Thing You Never Should Admit.” Boys Don’t Cry:
Rethinking Narratives of Masculinity and Emotion in the US. Eds. Millette
Shamir, Jennifer Travis. New York: Columbia University Press. 2002. 140-72.
Wagner, Linda Welshimer, Ed. Ernest Hemingway: Five Decades of Criticism. Michigan State University Press, 1974.
Holder, Alan. “The Other Hemingway.” Wagner. 103-08.
Scott, Nathan, Jr. “Ernest Hemingway, A Critical Essay.” Wagner. 210-18.
Warren, Robert Penn. “Ernest Hemingway.” Wagner. 77-101.
In Ernest Hemingway's short stories "Indian Camp" and "Soldier's Home," young women are treated as objects whose purpose is either reproduction or pleasure. They do not and cannot participate to a significant degree in the masculine sphere of experience, and when they have served their purpose, they are set aside. They do not have a voice in the narrative, and they represent complications in life that must be overcome in one way or another. While this portrayal of young women is hardly unique to Hemingway, the author uses it as a device to probe the male psyche more deeply.
Masculinity Gone Awry: Hemingway’s Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises From the beginning, Robert Cohn’s name defines himself-he is essentially a conehead in a society where concealing insecurities and projecting masculinity is paramount. Although he tries in vain to act stereotypically male, Cohn’s submissive attitude and romantic beliefs ultimately do little to cover up the pitiful truth; he is nothing more than a degenerate shadow of masculinity, doomed for isolation by society. In the incriminating eyes of people around him, Cohn is a picture-perfect representation of a failure as a man. Through Cohn, Hemingway delineates not only the complications of attaining virility, but also the reveal of another “lost” generation within the Lost Generation:
The Code Hero is present in the majority of Hemingway's novels. Even the young man in Hills Like White Elephants contained many of the characteristics of the Code Hero such as free-willed, individualist, and travel. The individualism comes out in his desire to not have a child.
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.
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).
Meter, M. An Analysis of the Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway. Texas: Texas College of Arts and Industries, 2003.
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.
Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21st, 1899 to his parents, Clarence and Grace Hemingway. His family was wealthy, and would eventually move to a much bigger house with a music studio and a medical office to accommodate their occupational needs. His relationship with his mother was rocky at best, and he complained of her persistence in making him play the cello. In a book written by his sister, she reported that Grace had been obsessed with having twin girls, and had gone as far to dress young Ernest in girl’s clothing and call him “Ernestine”. This went on until he was six years old, and may explain his continuous focus on appearing masculine later in life. His relationship with his mother would set the tone for his future interactions women. He was brought up a man’s man, his father teaching him to hunt, camp, and fish from the very young age of four years old. These summer retreats would take place at his family’s summer home on Lake Walloon in Michigan. Spending much of his time outdoors as a boy instilled in him a great affinity for nature and sporting. At Oak Park and River Forest High School, he was very involved in sports and did w...
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.
Through this brief anecdote, Hemingway presents the readers the social dilemma of male domination over his counterpart. The women's fight for equality changed some "old traditions" but there are still many Jigs in our society that shouldn't be treated as inferiors. Women are the most beautiful beings in life, but they are not to be possessed ,but loved and admired.
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...
Hemingway's characters in the story represent the stereotypical male and female in the real world, to some extent. The American is the typical masculine, testosterone-crazed male who just ...
Waldhorn, Arthur. Ernest Hemingway: A Collection of Criticism (Contemporary Studies in Literature). Chicago: Syracuse University Press, 1978.
Ernest Hemingway believed in his “Code Hero”, and Santiago as the main character demonstrated that through bravery, grit and comradeship. Santiago went through a lot and yet, he didn’t lose his way. Santiago really is a “Code Hero” because he showed courage. Santiago perfectly demonstrated courage, when he was leaving the docks by himself. He didn’t bring Manolin along for the trip. He was showing courage, and not giving in to his fears of being alone. Santiago didn’t violate Manolin’s father’s wishes. Santiago did what was needed to do and he didn’t want to deep down but he had to and he did. He wasn’t a coward and think about himself.Santiago really is a “Code Hero” because of his endurance. Santiago didn’t give up when he was fighting the
A Hemingway Code Hero is a character from an Ernest Hemingway novel that follows a particular pattern of how he or she conducts life on a day to day basis. Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms lives with a respect for honor and courage as a Code Hero should. Catherine Barkley is the original code hero of the novel. She has all of the traits of a Hero, and implements them onto Frederic as he matures throughout the story. Catherine’s three main traits that define her as a Hemingway Code Hero are her values of human relationships over materialism, her idealism, and her grace under pressure; she is fearful but not afraid to die.