Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Literary Position of Hemingway The 6th Nobel Prize winner (1954) in American literary history The spokesman of the lost generation One of the most important writers in modernist American literature

Life of Ernest Hemingway born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1899 His father, Ernest Miller, was a doctor and also an avid hunter and fisherman. Both the father and the son kill themselves by gun a dominant artist mother Hemingway feels shameful of Quitting school after graduation from high school

Life of Ernest Hemingway at age 17 taking a job as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. The newspaper style he has to follow in this profession lay foundation for his later literary style. The boss of this newspaper forbids his men to use any flowery, arrogant, exaggerated adjectives and adverbs in their report. Verb is favored, so is short sentences, short first paragraphs. Hemingway admits he learns a lot from this. And this requirement shapes his life-long prose style.

Life of Ernest Hemingway rejected while wanting to fight in WWI due to an eye injury, but traveling overseas as a Red Cross ambulance driver; wounded in Italy during his duties with the Red Cross at 19; the first wounded American during this war; welcome home as a hero in Toronto working as a reporter for the Toronto Star; dissatisfied and moving to Paris as a foreign correspondent for the Star . in Paris, taken under the wing of fellow Americans Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound under whose influence Hemingway focused his attention on creative writing rather than reporting.

Life of Ernest Hemingway Like Fitzgerald, E.E. Cummings, trying to reform literature, whom Stein labels them as “the lost generation” To be lost means: Cut off from their country, form continuity caused by the death of their friends in the war, the prevailing greed, the cruelty of the age. In literature, trying a spare, tight, reportorial prose style, concise in imagery, and dramatic in tone

Life of Ernest Hemingway Life in Spain, Africa and in Key West, Florida in the 1930s fighting bulls in Spain; bullfighting for Hemingway a symbol of blood and masculinity, a game of violence and death where life and death coexist Hunting in Africa Fishing in Florida on whichThe Old Man and the Sea (1952) is based Four marriages and three divorces

Works of Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises (1926) on whose head page Stein writes “You are the lost generation”: effect of war on the youth both physically and spiritually A Farewell to Arms (1929) based on his war experience during the First World War: war is disgusting and war destroys love For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) whose protagonist Jordan dies a code hero typical of Hemingway characters for a cause of justice The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

Works of Ernest Hemingway Men without Women (1927) and Winner Take Nothing (1933), two stories founding his position of short story master

Hemingway’s Literary Features Novels of Test Set in the battlefield, hunting field, bullfighting ring or on the sea A test of Hemingway protagonists’ endurance and courage in harsh reality, and in the face of death and suffering The Sun Also Rises, Farwell to Arm, For Whom the Bell Tolls: all protagonists striving to show courage, to have dignity, style and pressure.

Hemingway’s Literary Features Novels of Initiation Stories of initiation collected in In Our Time (1925) The central character Nick’s growth, his disillusionment the theme 3 stages of personal growth or initiation: ignorant at the departure; transfiguration in hardships; return home as a mature man

Hemingway’s Literary Features War Novels War and its effect is one of the prevailing themes in Hemingway’s works. The context is often fighting or hunting, which test individual moment or truth. One meets death, faces danger, and shows fighting spirit, courage, dignity and pressure. The protagonists live by a certain spirit, or by a certain code. Fighting and hunting enable them to face animal which may cause violent death. Hemingway’s experience in hunting and war (WWI, Spanish War) influences him greatly. He is a code hero; he wants to show he is a man by certain code. Hemingway’s attitude toward war is negative. Physical wound and spiritual trauma of war Hemingway’s personal experiences and individualism (disappointed, lost, cheated in the war, life is short, void of beliefs, morality, escapism by drinking, hunting, skiing, all features of the lost generation)

Hemingway’s Literary Features Characterization Haunted by war and violence. Wounded both physically, spiritually and psychologically (The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms) Growing from immaturity to maturity by way of disillusionment (Nick in In Our Time) Courageous and loyal to law, and enjoying danger and violence Two kinds of male characters: Tough Guy or Code Hero and lost but stubborn characters with dignity Two kinds of female characters: bad woman and sexual object of man Characters negating traditional values but avoiding meditation

Hemingway’s Literary Features Prose Style. Hemingway “stood to write and sat to polish” Journalistic, telegraphic, economic prose style: Using words sparingly, and using verbs to show all he wants to show, such as feelings, opinions Avoiding unnecessary use of adjectives and adverbs, preferring simple everyday words The simple, concrete syntax, short simple declarative sentences, and compound sentence combined with “and” Disusing slang Frequent repetition

Hemingway’s Literary Features Simple style to forward strong emotions Hemingway’s iceberg theory Deceptively simple Rich in overtones and understatements Style reflects his content A cool detached attitude towards life Objective counterpart: objects, scenes, events for an expression of feelings and emotions

Hemingway’s Literary Features Dramatic point of view Photographic like movies Preferring showing to telling Detailed description

Hemingway’s Literary Features Popular Themes War and its effect Death Masculinity Lost generation’s being lost