Ernest Hemingway's Experiences

Smith, Paul. A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. 1989. Print.

Furthermore, the tone is relevantly foreseen in the following: “but walking home at night through the empty streets with the cold winds and all the shops closed, trying to keep near the street lights, I knew I would never have done such things, and I was very much afraid to die, and often lay in bed at night by myself, afraid to die and wondering how I would be when I went back to the front again” (Hemingway252) With this particular word choice of “cold wind” and “shops closed” Hemingway expresses isolation and a deep loneliness for the protagonist as the outsider of the war, although he participated and was injured. Through descriptive language in the setting and diction in the tone, we cannot forget about mood that always goes hand in hand with tone as the last technique, Hemingway connects the reader to his

Ernest Hemingway was referred to me from Dr. John in regards to his explosive disorders and loss of sleep and appetite. Dr. John also said that he has feeling of suicide following the death of his father. Dr. John

He uses symbols effectively, which helps him to explore the theme of disillusionment and death. Death in his stories has many names; for example 'nada' or 'nothingness' – it may be assumed that it is always present. “Hemingway and the Lost Generation thereby explored more than just death, but the possibility of escape from the corruption of the old dreams – of being able to “resume again unknowing” – without returning to the past” (Currell 2009: 39). His short stories contains an excellent portraiture of society struggling with their personal waste lands. Even though they are not literally about the Great War, they display the inner significance of the Roaring Twenties; they show society's mentality and confusion. “Themes of Hemingway’s works have their roots in journalism and in topic or events that he believed were representative of the post-war world his grown-up characters and his readers alike had to confront” (Stewart 2001: 31). Further-more, in Hemingway’s fiction all the values seem to be no longer valid; a reader encounters disappearance of religion, which failed to provide emotional support for traumatised socie-ty. It also does not present valid answers. Finally, in Hemingway’s short stories appears a very important theme of anomie – the state where there are no law or norms. It can be also defined as an individual’s alienation (Idema 1990:

Ernest Hemingway started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. Here he learned to get to the heart of a story with direct, simple sentences. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Here he was wounded near the Italian/Austrian front. Hospitalized, he fell in love with his nurse, who later called off their relationship. 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).

In Hemingway’s writing, he is always searching for truth, although, he often looks at the world in a nihilistic way. When reading through the authors’ short-stories or novels, he often refers to nothingness and the meaninglessness of existence. However, he also uses a practical application to repair his existential nihilistic viewpoints. Hemingway’s work is often seen as a representation of himself, and I believe that he used pragmatism as a distraction from the meaninglessness of the world. With suicide being prevalent in his family, I firmly believe that Hemingway himself strived for meaning in life, but eventually opted out because life is chaotic and there are too many unknown answers in the world. Hemingway tried to establish values and morals through pragmatism, but in reality, values are constantly changing and everything is temporary. By looking through a philosophical lens, I will demonstrate how Hemingway uses absurdism, nihilism, and pragmatism as a way to understand and interpret the world. In order to do so, I will look through Hemingway’s short-stories and novels and analyze passages critically to showcase the theories that are present in his work. In order to undertake this grand idea, I will also incorporate biographical elements to display Hemingway’s family history of suicide and to showcase his personal struggle to find meaning in the world.

When Hemmingway was young, his father persuaded him to have his tonsils removed by a friend, Dr. Wesley Peck. Even though it was Dr. Peck who performed the painful operation, Hemingway "always held it against his father for taking out his tonsils without an anaesthetic" (Meyers 48). Hemingway saw the opportunity to portray his father in "Indian Camp" as the cold-hearted man who had his tonsils yanked out without anaesthetic. In a reply to Nick's question about giving the Indian woman something to stop screaming, his father states, "No. I haven't any anaesthetic…But her screams are not important. I don't hear them because they are not important." (Tessitore 18) Hemingway lashed out at his father one more time before the story ends. In "Indian Camp," Hemingway uses the conversation between Nick and his father, concerning the suicide of the Indian, to show his distaste for his own father's suicide: 'Why did he kill himself, Daddy?' 'I don't know Nick.' 'He couldn't stand things, I guess.' 'Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?' 'Not very many, Nick…' 'Is dying hard, Daddy?' 'No, I think its pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.' (Hemingway 19) Hemingway saw his father as a weak working man who served his wife, Grace, unconditionally. Ed worked a full day to come home to clean house, prepare food, and tend to the children. He had promised Grace that if she would marry him, she would not

Hemingway chose a unique approach to his story. Many short stories are filled with formal speech. However, Hemingway presented to us his story, without using exquisite words or elongated sentences. His writing was direct and minimal, but also precise. The author allowed us to create our own environment, by playing off common experiences in everyday life. By doing that he produced an atmosphere that can easily be fashioned and manipulated by the reader in order to create a relatable surrounding.

The period between World War I and World War II was a very turbulent time in America. Ernest Hemingway most represented this period with his unrestrained lifestyle. This lifestyle brought him many successes, but it eventually destroyed him in the end. His stories are read in classrooms across America, but his semi-autobiographical writings are horrible role models for the students who read them. Hemingway’s lifestyle greatly influenced his writings in many ways.

Hemingway has originally tried to join the United States army after Woodrow Wilson declared war against Germany, but couldn’t become a soldier because of his poor eyesight. Hemingway had signed for the position to become an Ambulance driver, but he soon would witness true horror when he had been sent on a trip to mission to the Italian city of Milan, on the scene of a munitions factory that had exploded. He was only eighteen years old. This would be the first of many tragedies he would have to face during the First World

Due to Hemingway’s horrific relationship with his mother, Grace Hemingway, Hemingway was never able to endure all his other relationships long enough for him to truly enjoy them. Of course he did have a few memorable moments in each relationship he had, everyone receives one each day. But, it just comes down at the end of Hemingway’s life; he was unhappy and regretted almost all of his four marriages. Also, Hemingway felt that he was never truly “man enough” and continuously wanted to prove himself to others. When everyone told they believed he was very masculine, he would not believe it. Instead, Hemingway chose to express what he felt about his life experiences through his writing, letting the world see what he believed. Because of this, Ernest Hemingway became one the most respected and well-known authors that literature had ever

It can be said that all fiction is autobiographical in that no matter how different from the author’s life experience it may be, marks of their life can be found in any of their works and characters. One such example is Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, which is largely based on Hemingway’s own personal life experiences. Frederick Henry, the main character in the story, experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway lived out in his own life. Some of events and situations are exact, while others are less similar, and some have a completely different outcome all together.

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

“Hemingway’s greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form”(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3).

Ernest Hemingway the winner of the Nobel Peace prize lived a troubled life over his Sixty-two years of life and experienced many struggles. He went through a few marriages, different faiths and in the end, he lost his battle with depression. However, though all of this he made an impact on the world with the style and theme of American literature he wrote and is a significant influence to many authors and readers alike. During his life, there were many things that were an influence and help shape his writing into what it is today. Hemingway heavily focused on the theme of war during his career and was a topic of several of his novels one of those novels being “For whom the bell tolls” (Hemingway) The recognizable effects of Hemingway’s influence on literature is still witnessed around the world in the many tributes to him to this day.