...Module 4 Essay - 1900-1945 Fiction Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author during the 20th Century, and many of his writings are a staple of American literature. Hemingway's was such a successful author because the characters he created in his work seemed real to the reader and could be related to. Among his works he published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; also three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published after his death. (Nobel Prize) During his lifetime, he was awarded with, Silver Medal of Military Valor in World War I, Pulitzer Prize in 1953 (for The Old Man and the Sea) Nobel Prize in literature in 1954 (also partly for The Old Man and the Sea) In 2001, two of his books, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, would be named to the list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library. (Noble Prize) Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on July 21, 1899. (Belasco, 976) His father was a physician, and Ernest was the second of six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Clarence E. Hemingway. His mother with considerable music talent hoped that her son would develop an interest in music. Instead, Hemingway acquired his father's enthusiasm for guns and for fishing trips in the north woods of Michigan. (Belasco, 976) Hemingway writes in a deceptively simple...
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...,July 21st 2009 ENC 1102 M,W, 7:45am Term Paper “The Theme of Human Struggle in the Works of Ernest Hemingway” In my research paper I will show how elements of life and death, folklore/fables, myths, and rites of passage support the theme of human struggle against nature in the stories "The Old Man and the Sea," "Indian Camp," "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway. Through comparative analysis of these stories' underlying themes I will address the initiation experiences of his heroes. Human dignity, morality, and the formation of human individuality through mental strife and the struggle against nature are often themes of Hemingway. Humans cope with the complexity of the world by developing simple mental models based on opposite parts. Life and death are together, two extremes of one energy. Life is the active force and death is the inactive force, but they cannot be separated. Thus, they are two aspects of one reality. When people are reading about living beings and mythological beings or those who are dead, they view the word of the dead as a living world. The dead eat, sleep and move. In the book “The Hero in Hemingway's short stories”, J. DeFalco points out that: " in the Myth there are usually three dominant movements which are cyclic in pattern. They are the departure of the hero, the initiation, and the return from heroic adventure." (17). The movements of the hero to the world where...
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...Something How does Ernest Hemingway express the emotions state in the story through the action and the setting? Hortons Bay used to be a prosperous lumber town, but nothing was left from it anymore. The title refers to the end of an old-fashioned way of living, and bringing of a new modern life. In the 19th century mills were an important part of production and many American towns were built around mills or factories. But in the beginning of 20th century such remote mills were closed, and people need to find new ways of making a living. Also the title refers to the end of a love story between Nick and Marjorie. Nothing is clearly said about the past of the couple, but Hemingway technique of objective correlations leaves space to the reader to guess the story. It looks like Nick and Marjorie have been together for a long time, since they recall their house in this old town which no more exists. Also there is intimacy and routines between them, which points to what once could have been an important and solid relationship. Nick and Marjorie have gone for fishing; Marjorie loves fishing with Nick, while nothing similar is noted about Nick. The author is reserved, he describes the conversation between the couple, but he doesn’t add anything which can explain their feelings or their thoughts. This task is left entirely to the reader. The settings that Hemingway uses provide the reader with a vivid imaginary of the scenes. Contrary to the emotions of the characters, the fishing moment is described...
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...“I have decided, or rather I decided several months before it started, or may be several years say, not to write propaganda in this war at all. I am willing to go to it and will send my kids to it and will give what money I have to it but I want to write just what I believe all the way through it and after it. It was the writers in the last war who wrote propaganda that finished themselves off that way. There is plenty of stuff that you believe absolutely that you can write which is useful enough without having to write propaganda….If we are fighting for what we believe in we might as well always keep on believing in what we have believed, and for me this is to write nothing that I do not think is the absolute truth.” -To Maxwell Perkins, Finca Vigia, Cuba, May 30, 1942 It would be nice to designate the Second World War with a factual title, such as The Good War, or The Best War Ever, but in retrospect neither of these titles would be an honest opinion to the military or the civilian victims of the war. Historians and journalists alike, being that one cannot be the other and therefore should never be confused but for the instance of the following should be entitled to the same mistakes, insinuate that the portrayal of the Second World War was an accurate one without the tremendous censorship and propaganda that transpired out of the First World War. Undoubtedly, to believe such an apparent statement of propaganda would be to dismiss the actions and the transformation of...
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...Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution. During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an American ambulance officer's disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter. Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in Spain as the background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the Sea (1952), the story of an old fisherman's journey, his long and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat. Hemingway - himself a great sportsman - liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and...
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...Baseball, War, and Romance Both written by Ernest Hemingway, “The Three Day Blow” and “A Way You’ll Never Be” are short stories that focus on the life of Nick Adams. The two short stories center on important events that take place in Nick Adams’s life as a young man. Hemingway uses these events to show how Nick Adams’s past experiences affect him in the present. Based around baseball, war, and romance, these stories are significant by explaining how past experiences can have a lasting impact on a young man. “The Three Day Blow” and “A Way You’ll Never Know” are short stories that emphasize Nick Adams’s experiences with baseball, World War I, and Marjorie. “The Three Day Blow” is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that describes Nick Adams’s love for the sport of baseball. At the beginning of the short story, Nick Adams and his older friend Bill Smith are in Bill's family cottage in Michigan, and they are enjoying their time drinking liquor and talking about sports, especially baseball (McSweeney 1). Nick and Bill mention the trade of Heinie Zimmerman from the Chicago Cubs to the New York Giants, which takes place in 1916 before the American entrance into World War I (Flora 2). Hemingway uses the baseball references in “The Three Day Blow” to show a timeline of events in that happen in 1916 (Hurley 45). The references include Nick and Bill’s mention of John McGraw's recent acquisition of Heinie Zimmerman, transacted on Monday, August 28, 1916 (Hurley 45). As a result of Hemingway’s...
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...Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway offers a critical analysis of the use of violence as a testament of one’s manhood and explores a common-ground that will always delineate man: woman. Along with the short story, these ideas will be further developed through “What's Love Got to Do with It? An Evolutionary Analysis of ‘The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,’” and “Hemingway's ‘Francis Macomber’ in Pirandellian and Freudian Perspectives.” A lack of violence in Francis Macomber paints him as the weaker man in this short story. The bold, gruff exterior of Wilson is parallel to what America used to define as manly. These two characters find that their manliness, or lack thereof, can always be overlooked when they rejoice over a woman’s misfortune. The aforementioned ideas insist that the obsession with idealized gender-roles is unrealistic in the American ethos as it is never satisfactory and often a threat to others as they are insecure in their own positions. The character of Francis Macomber is the new American man: he is handsome, married to a beautiful woman, proficient in court games and fishing, and rich enough to hunt for sport. However, this American model is portrayed as fragile, weak, naïve, and most prominently a coward. Francis takes comfort in the safety of the jeep; he loathes the idea of shooting this creature from up close. “Macomber stood there feeling sick at his stomach, his hands that held the springfield still cocked, shaking” (Hemingway, 77). These...
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...Hope is a four letter word that has a thousand meanings. Hope can be expressed in many different ways. Google.com describes hope to be a feeling of excitement while waiting for something significant to occur. Every person experiences hope at least once a day. In the Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, Santiago was desperately trying to catch a marlin. This marlin represents hope. The marlin represents hope because it is the one thing that Santiago will not let go, it gives Santiago strength, and in the end, is mostly lost. The marlin, which represents hope, is one thing that Santiago will not let go. When the tug loosens on the fishing line Santiago exclaims, “‘He can’t be gone’ he said, ‘Christ knows he can’t have gone’” (Hemingway 42). Santiago keeps holding the marlin for strength and will not give up. He was so hopeful that the fish was there that there was no way in his mind that he could give up. “You work now, fish...I’ll take you at the turn” (Hemingway 89). Santiago will not let go of this fish. The marlin is everything to him and once that is gone he is left with nothing but himself. He has calculated every move so that he will catch the fish. Nothing is able to stop him. When Santiago does have the marlin on his line, than he is filled with both hope and strength. The marlin that Santiago is trying to catch...
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...An American icon, noble price winner, heavy drinker, serious hunter, lovely father, and much more, Ernest Hemingway has really captured people’s imaginations with his writing and actions. There are only quite a few people who are all rounded like Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway had made his name very popular with his writing skill and adventures. Born on July 21, 1899 in suburban Oak Park, IL to Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway, Ernest was the second of six children to be raised in a quiet suburban town by his physician father and devout musician mother. Indeed, Hemingway's childhood pursuits fostered the interests, which would blossom into literary material. Although Grace hoped her son would be influenced by her musical interests, young Hemingway preferred accompanying his father on hunting and fishing trips; this love of outdoor adventure would later be reflected in many of Hemingway's stories, particularly those featuring protagonist Nick Adams. Hemingway's aptitude for physical challenge remained with him through high school, where he both played football and boxed. Due to the permanent eye damage he contracted from numerous boxing matches, Hemingway was repeatedly rejected from service in World War I. Boxing provided more material for Hemingway's stories, as well as a habit of likening his literary feats to boxing victories. In addition, Hemingway did not enjoy journalism as much as writing novels, therefore he wrote to Gertrude Stein, now a very good friend in Paris...
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...Isolation, Illusion, and Love: Hemingway Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises was a book that emphasized what the jazz age was all about. The book was written in 1926 and is about a group of Americans and Brits that travel all over Europe after World War One. This is very similar to how Hemingway lived in the 20’s because he too traveled around Europe in the 20’s when this book took place. In the book a group of friends go to a bull fighting festival. The protagonist is Jake Barnes who is an American journalist living in Paris. In the war he suffered a wound that left him impotent, which means he can’t have sexual intercourse with a woman. Even though he cannot have sex he is in love with an Englishwoman, Lady Brett Ashley. Brett embodies the sexual freedom of the 1920’s. Her style is very close to the new woman, bobbed hear and many love affairs. In the first part of the book you can sense the sexual tension between Brett and Jake. While in the cab she confesses she loves him but a relationship would never work. When she tells him this they both are extremely drunk because they have been to a night club all night. The next part of the book Jake goes on a fishing trip with his friend Bill. They enjoy a quite few days with little drinking, playing cards and fishing. After the five days they rejoin their friends in Pamplona, where the festival is. They start to drink heavy again. The group is not fond of a fellow on the trip there with them, Robert Cohn. He had an affair with Brett...
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...Something” «The end of something» is a four page long short story about something as simple as a breakup. In this analysis, I will write about the different parts of the story, and different kinds of symbols the author used during the short story. I chose this focus because that’s the most important thing to notice if you really want to understand the story. The author of this short story is the famous writer Ernest Hemingway. He lived in the 20th century, and most of his short stories and romans were based on his own life experiences, including many experiences from the world wars. Hemingway is well known for his writing style, and his iceberg theory. This short story is also a great example of how Hemingway used the iceberg theory in his stories. The story takes place in the old lumbering town of Horton’s bay, where there once upon a time was a fun, loving town with a big mill in the center. Now, ten years later, the mill is broken and it’s not much left of the town. The young couple, Marjorie and Nick, is rowing nearby the shore, trying to catch some fish. After a failed fishing trip, and some awkward silence, Nick admits that he does not think their relationship is fun anymore. Marjorie packs her stuff and leaves, and suddenly a new character enters the story. Nicks friend Bill shows up and wonders how the breakup went. I would say this story has five different parts. The first part is the description of the setting and the history of the place. The narrator tells us about how...
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...Influence Ernest Hemingway was one of the greatest authors of his time. His writing style seems very straightforward, yet complexities are strung throughout it. Ernest Hemingway’s parental issues impacted his marriage, writing, and ultimately his death. Hemingway’s childhood consisted of mostly neglect. Ernest was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois (“Biography” 1). Oak Park, according to Hemingway was “full of wide lawns and narrow minds” (McDowell 11). He was the second child of six (McDowell 13). His mother was the “man” of the house while his father was an underpaid doctor. Grace Hemingway, once an aspiring opera singer, bullied and humiliated Ernest (“Oak” 3). It was believed she drove him to depression and eventually...
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...learning how to sail my ship” (Louisa May Alcott). This quote definitely applies to Santiago, an old, native fisherman living in Cuba. In the book The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway depicts a story about a humble, wise, persevering man fishing off the coast of Havana, Cuba. Throughout the novel Santiago is beat down, tired and weary but due to his character traits is “destroyed but not defeated” (Hemingway 103). This quote has a powerful meaning throughout the book as Santiago learns to sail his ship of life through the troubling storms of the world. Hemingway paints Santiago’s deterioration throughout the first part of the novella. Right away, the reader is informed that Santiago “had gone eighty...
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...In the novella, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and the movie The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger have many similarities in the main characters. The main similarities that Santiago and Billy Tyne share are their pride, the losses they both have, and how they are both treated throughout their days of being a fisherman. Santiago is the main character in the novella, The Old Man and the Sea. He is an older man who is a fisherman where recently he has not caught any fish for eighty-four days. His pride is to keep fishing and trying to catch something so people in his village would stop laughing at him because he has not caught a single fish for a long time. Even though he has not caught anything for that amount of time and listens...
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...Autobiographical Self-representation in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea Twentieth Century American Fiction ¬¬¬¬ Art and Literature has its origin in man’s desire for immortality. This desire for eternal remembrance prompted primitive men to carve figures of himself and his surroundings in his dwelling places. As art developed and languages formed, the same desire enflamed and that became an impetus for literature. Early literature must have been a recording of real life events with strong and highly fictional additions. Thus, every literature is a product of this human desire to make oneself immortal through the recording of one’s own philosophy, imaginations and real life events. Even in the modern age this subconscious desire results in the inclusion of autobiographical elements of the author into his writings. Ernest Hemingway, America’s most celebrated novelist-cum -short story writer of the twentieth century is said to derive the impetus for his fiction from his own real life experiences or very rarely from the experiences of others who have went through agonies in life just like him. The Old Man and the Sea, one of his greatest and most widely read work is certainly filled with many allusions to his own life, and ideals. The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of an old fisherman named Santiago who fishes in the gulf stream. The man is having some bad time with fishing and has gone without fish for eighty five days. He is very poor and...
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