The Socially Constructed Practice of Masculinity in Literature

In a perfect world, men and women would live as equals, sharing power in all aspects of life. While this may be an appealing notion, it is nonexistent in society. Strong men are seen by women as abusive and dominating, while strong women are seen by men as castrating and emasculating. The text of Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in many ways, conforms to the structure of conventional male myth and asks the reader to accept that myth as a heroic pattern. From a masculinist perspective, it offers a charismatic hero in Randle Patrick McMurphy, a figure of spiritual strength and sexual energy, whose laughter restores the patients of the mental institution to life and confounds the combine’s “machines,” or authoritarians.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is based largely on Hemingway's own personal experiences. The main character of the book, Frederic Henry experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway experienced. Some of these experiences are exactly the same, while some are less similar, and some events have a completely different outcome.

Lt. Frederic Henry shows a wide range of emotions in “ Farewell to Arms”. At the beginning of the novel Henry shows zero emotion about the war and about life. He understates the importance of war and the people being killed. Henry’s emotions and feelings all change when he meets Catherine Barkley. Henry is an American in the Italian army. Henry used to be an Ambulance driver. Henry shows changes as his love for Catherine grows stronger. Henry loves Catherine so much that he deserted the army , and also left to Switzerland so they won’t be arrested. Catherine brought out emotions in Henry that hew never had.

Women today are still battling with the stereotypes given to them many years ago. Women are seen as less than men, they are expected to stay home and take care of the children and absolutely never be more successful than a man. They are not supposed to be seen as the hero in a situation because heroes are seen as masculine men, not women. More shows and movies are starting to fight back against these stereotypes. One show in particular, NCIS or the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, portrays women as strong and successful. It gives women a chance to show how confident they can be in themselves and that they can also be considered the hero. NCIS shows through Abby and Ziva that women can be successful and the hero, which provides women with a strong and heroic role model to emulate.

    "All fiction is autobiographical, no matter how obscure from the author's experience it may be, marks of their life can be detected in any of their tales"(Bell, 17).  A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is based largely on Hemingway's own personal experiences.  The main character of the novel, Frederic Henry, experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway lived.  Some of these similarities are exact, while some are less similar, and some events have a completely different outcome.

Masculinity is an odd concept, because in many ways it is representative of strength and power. However, it is also represented through pop culture, literature, media, etc. as being rather fragile. In feminist literature, we see this fragility come through at incredible rates. While simply looking at a couple of novels, it is possible to evaluate how the power dynamic of masculinity puts up its walls when facing the smallest threats to its power. Through analysis of Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, it is possible to see how the figureheads of masculinity panic as soon as they are posed with the smallest threat. The protagonists of both stories are categorized as “mad” or “abnormal” throughout the course of each respective plot. They are placed there under the pretenses that this classification is what is best for them because it allows them to get the help they need and deserve in order to get better. However, these declarations of madness are really born from the infringement of both characters upon the pre-established patterns of masculinity and the panic that ensues from the male voice as a result of this deviance from traditional norms.

1.) The people in the novel The Sun Also Rises are lost in more ways than one. The men all throughout the novel would struggle with the idea of masculinity. For instance Romero is wanting to marry Brett. Although, he wants Brett to conform to the traditional, feminine woman. Brett confides into Jake saying how "He said it would make me more womanly. I'd look a fright," (246). This connects to the idea of masculinity and how it is hard for men in that time period to obtain it. That is because one of the many ways masculinity was obtained wat through women. If he could control Brett how he wanted, and marry her, he would become more manly. Another way in which the people in the novel are lost is that they feel a need to be accepted. Cohn was

I tend to think that Hemingway was foreshadowing the outcome by showing in this quote, what Henry really thinks and what his morals are. He enlists to help the Italian army and has a helping heart towards the Italians. So in this quote, he says he didn’t do those things he wanted to do. This could be many things, but I would guess that they were immoral and irrational things that wouldn’t compliment his record. This was located towards the beginning of the book, so I would assume that these thoughts might have stayed strong and he stood steadfast with them.

Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, focuses on a man named Frederick Henry, an American Lieutenant fighting alongside Italians during World War I. During his stay with the Italian army, Henry goes through love, pain, and death of his comrades. He conforms to the military tradition because that is his duty; however, towards the end of the novel, Henry decides to abandon this conformity, and chooses to live for Catherine, his lover, and himself. This striking change of action and philosophy arises from Henry’s disgust with violence and war. The change does not occur immediately; instead, Henry peels off his militaristic self layer by layer, and Hemingway shows this in a very biblical manner. These spiritual peelings are majorly highlighted

“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” Hemingway says. He used his own insecurities, thoughts on masculinity, and life events to compose this novel. In the novel, Jake was injured in the war just as Hemingway had been. Other men have also been changed by the effects of the war.

Farewell to Arms is a story about Frederic Henry a Lieutenant in the ambulance corps how he grows to be mature throughout the course of the war. The story starts off as Frederick Henry not really caring for the war he at first does not believe in the war. He then wants to meet a girl called that he has heard about Catherine, who when she meets turns out to be the nature of the two. She Understands that the war is not as easily forgettable as Frederic Thinks it is because she has experienced war with the loss of her first lover. Frederic Believes that the war should be unnecessary and it is the people who run the countries to blame. Henry is shown maturing throughout the entire story he really is not as mature as Catherine at the time, but he shows that he will be by the way that

Novels published after a major war are often the most deeply emotional, profound ruminations on human nature. The authors of these novels were once soldiers, living in fear and enduring sleepless nights. These authors channel their experiences and emotions into their work, often creating masterpieces of literature. A Farewell to Arms is one such novel. Its author, Ernest Hemingway, was in the Italian ambulance corps in World War I, much like the protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry. The themes in A Farewell to Arms reflect his mentality and the typical soldier’s disillusionment in the institutions and values he had always held close. A Farewell to Arms explores the far-reaching disillusionment that seems to plague Frederic. The theme of Frederic Henry’s disillusionment of all that he believes in appears through his desertion of the war, the deterioration of his relationship with Catherine, and his thoughts on life.

Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms covers a romance that takes place during World War I. The novel itself came out shortly after the war, and was the first of Hemingway’s books to become a best-seller. Essentially, the novel contrasts the horrors of war with the romance of Henry and Catherine. Throughout the plot, Hemingway, a World War I veteran himself, uses the events of the book to make a statement about his thoughts on war. The core message of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is that war damages the soldiers who fight in it both physically and emotionally, which is primarily illustrated by the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the war, the actions Henry is forced to take over the course of the book, and Henry’s growing cynicism towards war.

Ernest Hemingway's WWI classic, A Farewell to Arms is a story of initiation in which the growth of the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is recounted. Frederic is initially a naïve and unreflective boy who cannot grasp the meaning of the war in which he is so dedicated, nor the significance of his lover's predictions about his future. He cannot place himself amidst the turmoil that surrounds him and therefore, is unable to fully justify a world of death and destruction. Ultimately, his distinction between his failed relationship with Catherine Barkley and the devastation of the war allows him to mature and arrive at the resolution that the only thing one can be sure of in the course of life is death

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a book about love and war set in Italy during WWI. The book begins with Lieutenant Frederick Henry working as an