Ernest Hemingway Masculinity

Ernest Hemingway wrote stories about autobiographical, male characters that lacked maturity as judged by female characters. He exhibited this in his married life and it may have contributed to his

Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises tells the story of a young World War I veteran, Jake Barnes, who struggles to develop relationships or direction in his life resulting from his impotency and excessive alcoholism. Jake and his friends acquiesce to the will of Brett Ashley, even though none of them can hold a lasting relationship with her. Hemingway uses the expression or lack of masculinity as a tool to convey the devastating effects of the atrocities of World War I upon the young men living as part of the Lost Generation.

Many who read Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun also Rises, will feel some form of sympathy for the main character as I did. The Sun Also Rises is a post war novel that follows a group of people affected by the First World War. The Narrator and main character is Jake Barnes. As the story goes on we learn details about Jake such as the fact that he is impotent and that he once loved Brett. Jake was the character I sympathized the most for because his participation in World War I caused him to become impotent, he loves Brett but everyone else does as well and he gradually loses his best friend as the novel goes on.

Jake is a war veteran, he fought in World War I, and suffered an injury that somehow enabled him to perform in sexual activities. The injury is the reason why Brett, the love of Jake’s life, won’t commit to a relationship with him. Both Jake and Brett have very strong feelings for one another, but the fact that they cannot have a romantic relationship turns Brett away. When Brett couldn’t help her love for Jake, she would stop by his apartment and have small talk, but would regret coming by. Both of them would be left alone and unhappy, Hemingway states, “This was Brett, that I had felt like crying about”(42). Brett continuing to refuse a relationship with Jake leaves him feeling very emasculated. On the other hand, one can say that Brett is more masculine than all the men in the novel. She even refers to herself as “chap”(45). Brett is independent, sexual, strong, beautiful, drinks as much as the men, and all the men adore her characteristics. Cohn also lacks masculinity by always being in need of a woman's attention. The men have been damaged by the war and don’t even like to hear the word “war.” They have lost their sense of self and suffer because of their losses during the war. Masculinity is clearly displayed during the bull-fights. Something about someone stabbing a huge bull multiple times is very attractive to Brett. As Jake has a lot of knowledge about the bull-fights, he is

Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises has his male characters struggling with what it means to be a man in the post-war world. With this struggle one the major themes in the novel emits, masculine identity. Many of these “Lost Generation” men returned from that war in dissatisfaction with their life, the main characters of Hemingway’s novel are found among them. His main characters find themselves drifting, roaming around France and Spain, at a loss for something meaningful in their lives. The characters relate to each other in completely shallow ways, often ambiguously saying one thing, while meaning another. The Sun Also Rises first person narration offers few clues to the real meaning of his characters’ interactions with each other. The

Also, Hemingway was considered to be “vitally concerned with re-establishing what he felt were the proper rules of man and women in their relationship to each other” (Fiedler, 305). This is shown in his portrayal of women in

Hemingway was born into the new hopeful age, the twentieth century. Born into a typical American home, with two loving parents, it was not practical for him to pursue journalism at that time. Yet, he still chose to venture off, move overseas, and see what it had to offer so that he could collect inspiration for his writing. He knew that he had always wanted to be a writer, but did not know how much it took

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He was the second child of Clarence and Grace Hemingway’s six children. His family frequently made trips to northern Michigan where they owned a home. Ernest spent his summers on Walloon Lake where he had plenty of hunting and fishing experiences (Hemingway, Ernest). His associations with the Ojibway Indians, and his observations of discord between his parents developed him as a writer and provided him material for the future works that he would write (Unrue). After graduating from high school in 1917, ready to take on the world, he chose to not go to college and instead went to Kansas City, where he worked as a reporter for the Star (Ernest Hemingway). Not too long after the United States entered World War I, he quit his job as a reporter and went to Italy as a Red Cross volunteer in 1918. It took Hemingway a bit of time to enter the war because he was repeatedly rejected for military service due to a defective eye. In Italy, Hemingway was an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross (Cooke). Being apart of the war for not a lot of time, on July 8, 1918, he was wounded by an

In the world today, Ernest Hemingway is known as one of the great classic writers, but this wasn’t always true. Hemingway had already published two books before he finally became well liked with the publish of his book The Sun Also Rises, a novel detailing a group of Americans as they travel to Spain and the struggles they face inwardly. It is a book that is rife with different themes and symbolism, as well as significant to Hemingway’s life and one that speaks of life in the 20’s and what was or was not morally acceptable at the time, particularly concerning gender roles.

Hemingway used his written work as a depiction of his own life experiences in a number of ways. Like many other author’s he uses his stories and his poems to show his life. In stories such as “Soldier’s Home”, A Farewell to Arms, and “In Another Country” he portrays the characters as a reflection of himself. In each of these examples Hemingway explains multiple different aspects of his own life including, his life prior, during, after the war, and his love of a woman named Agnes. Although these stories aren’t exact descriptions of his life, they can be interpreted as depictions of his experiences.

written about “Ernest’s dislike of his mother, the early years indicate that she promoted a life, especially during the summer months, that enabled her son to learn and eventually excel in sports that were meaningful to him his entire life” (Sindelar 3). Perhaps, Grace and Ernest Hemingway did not see eye to eye on things, but one thing’s certain, she did her part in taking care of Hemingway and their family. Against all odds, Mrs. Hemingway never knew “about or was able to appreciate the high honors her son would receive for his writing” nor did she “[praise] his work or offered the recognition he so desired from her” (Sindelar 138). The amount of vitriol she had for poor Hemingway was enough to eventually steer him in the direction of a psychological

thoughts? Hemingway writes the books based on his experiences and thoughts like masculinity from a character to showing his self-confidence, death from alcohol which is showing the self-injury, fatalistic heroism like the character, Schatz from the book, A Day’s Wait and nature from mountain and safari (Africa) in The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber or other books. Hemingway puts the meaningful themes and symbols through his experience and thoughts.

Hemingway's world is one in which things do not grow and bear fruit, but explode, break, decompose, or are eaten away. It is saved from total misery by visions of endurance, by what happiness the body can give when it does not hurt, by interludes of love which

Many of the passages of the novel reflect his life. Hemingway writes: “But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” This has been shown through his life, as Hemingway wrote the novella to prove he wasn’t finished as a writer. This is also reflected during his time in World War 1. Hemingway was wounded by Austrian Mortar fire, and yet despite his injuries or “defeat,” Hemingway carried a wounded italian soldier to safety. Hemingway wrote: "When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion

Ernest Hemingway’s classic historical fiction novel The Sun Also Rises comprises an eventful timeline: bullfighting, fishing trips, male friendship, disguised alcoholism, and the differences between femininity and masculinity and how they overlap. . His 1926 novel about members of an expatriate friend group and one pivotal fiesta in Spain portrays a story rife with unrequited love, symbolism, and metaphors for the Lost Generation in Europe. However, the way Hemingway focuses on masculinity and femininity interplaying with each other and contrasts the effects of the two on all characters and story stands out to the audience.