Recurring Themes in the Works of Hemingway

The Spirit of Death

Ernest Hemingway has many themes when it comes to his short stories. These themes can range anywhere from sex, alcohol, death, youth and confidence. Many of these themes are in numerous stories that he writes. The theme most interesting is the way Hemingway portrayed the death of someone. He did not have someone die merely to cut them out of the story, it was the death of their spirt that died along with them. He believed every man’s life ended the same way; the difference is in how they lived it.

In The Short, Happy like of Francis Macomber, Francis only lived a short happy life, this life was considered to be joyous for seconds maybe minutes, if he were lucky. When Francis died he died a master of his own life. Francis Macomber was having his courage tested when he went to hunt his game that evening. His wife did not believe that he had ever excelled in manhood when it came to anything he did. He had money and decent looks and this is how he got by in life. When Francis killed his first game, he then discovered his sense of man hood. It took him until the age of thirty-five to realize that he could change and become a man. It was at the end of the story when he finally gets the courage to face the water buffalo and kill it. At this crucial moment his wife notices his sense of man hood and realizes that he is no longer going to need her, she feels he is in danger and shoots at the buffalo but instead kills her husband who dies happy, and with a sense of fulfillment and his spirt is finally lifted.

In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Harry is dying from the very begging of the story. He like many other Hemingway character has not lived his life in a way that makes his death easy. He married his wife solely on ...

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...is baby will be the death of there relationship. The women on the other hand, believes that keeping the baby will bring a new life into there relationship. The women possesses a feeling of difficulty when faced with the decision of having to get of the baby, to “save” her relationship with her lover. The man believes that the only thing that has bothered them and made them unhappy was the nagging thought of having a baby. He convinces her that if she has an abortion they will be all right and be happy again. She asks “And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?” She agrees to have an abortion and her spirt dies a little on the inside. She says “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” The death of their unborn fetus represents the death of her spirt, and happiness for someone other than her own.

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