What Are The Qualities Of The Hero By Ernest Hemingway

     Hemingway's view of human nature was that happiness was rare and was found within a man and not in his outside circumstances or surroundings.  Hemingway illustrates this in three ways.  First, he portrays the human nature of Santiago, the main character, as being one of humility and compassion, full of strength and pride.  He is shown not as a gleefully happy man, but one who meets life with a serene, quiet resilience.  Second, Santiago's fellow villagers are shown as shallow and materialistic, with a narrow view of life compared to his.  Their focus on appearances is in sharp contrast to Santiago's focus on intrinsic values.  Third, it will be shown that his rare

Ernest Hemingway uses his unique writing style to captivate audiences with “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” Mainly through a few short pieces of carefully crafted dialogue that not only establish setting and push the thin plot but also convey the central theme of existentialism.

The Old Man and the Sea In “The Old Man and the Sea”, Hemingway shows the fisherman Santiago as the ideal person. He’s independent in his action, eager to follow his calling, and willing to take a chance on a goal that seems impossible. Throughout the book we see Santiago endure much physical abuse, and pain.

When describing the man he said “the old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck (9)”. This depicts how old Santiago really was and how close he was to the end of his life. Hemingway also described the flag on his sail as “looking like the flag of permanent defeat (9)”. This quote foreshadows Santiago’s eventual death which was caused by going out at sea past his ordinary limits.

In The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses Santiago to demonstrate some of the qualities of a Hemingway Code Hero. Throughout the novel, Santiago encounters many trials and tribulations that test his role as a code hero. While reading the novel one will see that Santiago endures many of the rules of a code hero. However, the ones he encounters the most are misfortune, honor, and courage. Hemingway uses these rules in his novel in such a way that one can fully understand the life of Santiago.

Determination is a key factor in achieving the desired, which in Santiago’s case, is catching a fish… after never catching one for eighty four straight days, and therefore suffering humiliation and loneliness. So as he attempts to break his eighty-four-day-long bad lucky streak, he has to find the determination within him to continue as it gets exponentially harder to do so. While Santiago was holding on to the marlin, he was in significant amounts of pain: “He

His hard cut style parallels his stories, usually portraying characters having jobs or being in a situation that are considered violent, difficult and dangerous. An example of this is the numerous professions that his main characters undertake such as fighters, matadors, fishermen, soldiers and hunters. All of these help portray the protagonist as a hero through actions, titles and thoughts. Throughout his works, heroes are faced with death and must accept, work with, and eventually overcome the situation in a manner suitable to their title and status as a hero. Of the five character profession examples listed previously, Hemingway either had a great interest in or actually took part in the job/hobby one time in his life (Torma).

In other words, Santiago, may have wanted to give up, but it was his courage to go on with doing the task that he knew he had to complete, even if in the end he failed. He went on with courage, dignity and grace. It's kind of a metaphor for life, you can be destroyed by what happens to you, like if you have cancer, but it will never defeat you if you don't let it. You can be destroyed simply by hearing bad news, but it's up to you to turn that around so the bad news doesn't win in the end.Santiago goes fishing day after day even though he is on a "losing streak," as we might say today. He hasn't caught a fish for a very long time. He survives only because the boy brings him bits of food. But he doesn't quit. He continues to fish everyday

But perhaps the greatest figure of masculinity found in Hemingway’s work is Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea. He keeps his composure and maintains dignity after the fish that he has been fighting is lost to the sharks.

Analysis of all of Hemingway 's prose reveals many themes. Two themes though stand out in the four works reviewed for this paper. One of them is that the main character (usually the hero) must assert the self, has a fear of failure, and attacks those things which threaten the successful assertion of the self. "Assertion of the self in the stories usually takes the form of the assertion of the masculine principle." In Green, Hemingway exerts his masculinity by

Endurance can be seen in Santiago’s good spirit after eighty-four days in which he failed to catch a fish. “‘Eighty-five is a lucky number,’ the old man said” (Hemingway, 16). Santiago waits for the day his luck will return without complaint. To compound these twelve fishless weeks, the people in the town begin to speak poorly of the old man. “But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which was the worst form of unlucky…” (Hemingway, 9). None of this concerns the old man. He suffered in silence while trying to avoid taking charity from those around him. Later, during his time on the sea, Santiago faced down sleep deprivation and

Influences, achievements, and writing style linked with the success of major works all have been a part in creating and sustaining Ernest Hemingway as a writer. Some critics say that “Hemingway was a consciously masculine writer”(Shuman 901). Hemingway’s work is good and worth investing time to read

The story of life, struggle, spirit, luck and death is all perfectly summed in the tale of Santiago, the protagonist of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Human life is a constant struggle, and on a bigger scale the entire ecosystem could be considered a struggle. The Old Man and the Sea presents an interesting notion on conflicting human interests and emotions. Nothing could be considered just a simple matter of luck and survival, there is a strong connection between humans and nature, and that connection defines the struggle of physical and emotional survival of humans. Pride and honour are as important for the emotional survival as much as breathing

Most importantly, Hemingway’s “heroes are not defeated except upon their own terms” (Warren, 55); what matters to them “is the stoic endurance, … the stiff upper lip” (Warren, 55) which represents victory in their own ways. Hemingway then masterfully shows how these principles affect the character’s lives in a positive light. Santiago, the protagonist of The Old Man and The Sea, shows how the code hero principles help him gain peace despite his failure to catch the large fish. The struggle may also be arduous and testing, as shown in The Nick Adams Stories. We the audience see Nick Adams, the protagonist and code hero, evolve from a naïve child in the beginning of the story, all the way to a fully realized code hero at the end. Hemingway maps Adam’s journey as one with both blessings and hardships; however, in the end, these learned principles give Adams peace and understanding with his life. These heroes all face different forms of defeat or death; however in the end, they “all manage to salvage something” (Warren, 35) out of these excruciating circumstances. Ernest Hemingway utilizes Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea as a fully developed code hero and Nick Adams

In Santiago, the central character of The old man and The sea, Ernest Hemingway created a “code hero” who personified courage. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship you haven’t really learn anything”. -Muhammed Ali.