Ernest Hemingway

Life a reporter for the Kansas City Star at 18 seriously wounded in WWI at 19 An expatriate in Paris in the 1920s, a good friend with Gertrude Stein - ‘ the lost generation ’ Received the Nobel Prize in 1954 Committed suicide in 1961

Major novels The Sun Also Rises (1926) A Farewell to Arms (1929) For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

Wound 创伤 Physical wound Spiritual wound Symbol of the age

The Lost Generation Gertrude Stein WWI The 1920s Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos Nihilism （虚无主义） – disillusion, frustration, hopelessness

The code hero Grace under pressure: courage, capacity and dignity in face of nothingness, pain or despair A man can be destroyed but not defeated. (from The Old Man and the Sea)

Writing style Economy of words – simple but suggestive Reliance on dialogues – showing rather than telling, highly suggestive of personality Repetition – foregrounding the theme Antithesis – binary oppositions used to contrast different values and forces

HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS Ernest Hemingway, 1927

What was the couple talking about? The possibility of Jig (the female character) getting an abortion （堕胎 ）

Meaning of the Title Woman’s imagination vs. man’s insensibility Barrenness of the hills (white color) in relation to abortion Pregnancy: form of the big and heavy body The woman feels herself expensive but useless to the man.

Antithesis (contrasting values) Fertility vs. Sterility Pregnancy / Birth vs. Abortion Imagination vs. Insensibility Stability vs. Restlessness

Theme Failure to communicate - Jig and the American disagreed upon the issue of Jig getting an abortion and have difficulty convincing each other. Frustration - Disillusioned with the American, Jig feels hopeless about their future.

Assignments Read the assigned stories and prepare for the test: Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” Stephen Crane, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Babylon Revisited” Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”