“The Sun Also Rises” is one of the Ernest Hemmingway’s novels, that was written in the hours of solitude, and that describes the life of the Lost Generation. This novel is about life, thoughts and feelings of Jake Barnes – the Great War veteran, who tries to find himself in the after war life. The novel also describes his love to Brett Ashley.
“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another”
Meaning and Context of the Phrase
This phrase is said by Jake Barnes in chapter II, and he says it in response to the words of Robert Cohn, when he aims to persuade Jake to travel to South Africa. Cohn states, that he is dissatisfied with his life in Paris, and he believes, that the change of the surrounding scenery would help him to fill the void that he feels in the life. Actually, Jake clearly realizes that such reasoning is absurd and Cohn’s unhappiness originates from his outdated values of life, his decadent lifestyle and the eternal dissatisfaction with life. Jake aims to explain Robert that the attitude towards life is independent on the place a men lives in. Jake reveals the unique and deep insight into reviewing and solving problems, as he perfectly knows the post war generation.
Jake Barne’s Nature
This quote reveals Jake’s nature and the way of solving problems. He is pragmatic veteran of the World War I, and works as a journalist. He is the most stable among all his friends; however, he is also subjected to some ill-considered steps because of his feelings to Lady Brett Ashley, his impotence because of injury, and the moral vacuum left from the war. This analyzed quote positions him like an observer. He does not aim to do anything in order to fill his moral vacuum, and pragmatically views the world because of his ignorance to the surrounding world, and disgust to everything. However, in describing the events that happen around him and people he meets or remembers, Jake reveals much of his real feelings, thoughts and considerations.
Significance of the Quote to the Novel
The significance of this quotation to the entre novel is included in the words “you can’t get away…” The protagonist aims to get away from himself, his previous life and experience, which hurts him every time he aims to remember the previous years.
Jake is not very satisfied with the life in Paris, however, he likes this city. Most probably, that he will not be able to find himself in any other corner of the world, as it does not matter, what place you live in as everything depends on the nature, and world perception. The lost generation, which Jake Barnes belongs to, is doomed to the eternal self-search, as the representatives of the Lost Generation experienced the worst disaster in the world, and they would not be able to accept and enjoy the peaceful life as they did it before the war.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be mentioned, that it is always difficult to get away “from yourself”. Nevertheless, as we can see, Jake managed to do this. He succeeded in forgetting the disasters of the war, and could distract from his feelings to Brett, his impotence and the necessity to persuade Cohn in the uselessness of the trip to South Africa.
Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” was written in 1924, when he was engaged in writing his stories about Nick Adams. In fact, when Nick was narrating his war experiences, there was no need to create another protagonist with another story to do the same job. Therefore, doubt arose among the readers and critics about Hemingway’s hidden intentions. As Kobler puts it, the only probable reason could be that “Hemingway’s apology to himself for the exaggeration of his role in that war lies buried in his creation of ex-Marine Harold Krebs, who, like Hemingway, did not actually do any fighting” says Kobler (Kobler). Though Nick and Krebs are war veterans, there is a clear deviation seen in Krebs. Krebs feels frustrated as he repeats lies about his past. The thesis of this paper is in the form of an argument to convince the readers that Krebs’s laziness comes from his inability to adapt himself to the changing patterns of life, which society imposes on him. Krebs’s life as a soldier wounded him both sexually and psychically, creating a great traumatic effect on him. Hence, this paper probes into the backgrounds leading to his present state of laziness.
Hemingway begins the story with two different photographs in which Krebs is seen posing in two different backgrounds. The first one is with his college fraternity, where he is seen as quite comfortable. The other one is with two girls and a corporal, taken in Germany. The word “pose” becomes significant in the story because Krebs’s life itself becomes a kind of perpetual posing in order to survive in a hostile society. “He did not want any consequences….He wanted to live along without consequences” (Hemingway). There is an implied meaning here that he was forcibly plucked from one social environment and planted into another one. This is what one gathers from his gradual frustration, laziness, and his indifference to the surroundings: “A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told” (Hemingway). Krebs has come home from the war front in Europe, and his past role as a soldier is to be guessed from his present behavior. He cannot convince the people through his stories as these stories have become outdated and uninteresting to the people. Krebs is aware of this. Therefore, he can only withdraw from the outer world and live with the cursed memories of his past. In fact, he “did not want to leave Germany. He did not want to come home. Still, he had come home” (Hemingway). For those who watch him or for the common reader, he looks like an idle man, as he is not interested in anything. To convince them that he is not so is a bit difficult because he is seen either sleeping or reading. At the most, he goes out for a walk. Even the sight of the beautiful girls does not stir him. “When you were really ripe for a girl, you always got one. You did not have to think about it. Sooner or later, it could come. He had learned that in the army”, says the narrator (Hemingway). The photograph with the two girls must have created an impression among the readers that Krebs is highly sensitive to sex, which he is not. This mysterious behavior of Krebs takes the readers to study various socio-political developments which led to war and its psychological impact on the young generation. The traumatic behavior of Krebs also unravels Hemingway’s hidden experience on the war front, which he narrates in his stories and novels. Thus, Krebs becomes an ideal representative of Hemingway’s lost generation.
The story throws light into the social reality which the war left behind in the last century. Politics in the form of war creates disturbing effects on young men like Krebs. “But here at home, it was all too complicated. He knew he could never get through it all again”, says Krebs, feeling that he is a misfit (Hemingway). Hemingway is known for his understatement in his stories. “Soldier’s Home” to shows that its narration cannot truly represent the actual damage the war has done to Krebs. Therefore, only by penetrating into the laziness of Krebs can one understand the enormous psychic strain to which he was subjected. Though Krebs escaped physically unhurt, he is totally destroyed as a man. He is impotent now. He is not interested in driving a car, nor is he interested in loving a girl. He is bereft of all emotions. He cannot even amuse his mother and sisters. With this fact in mind, one should try to probe into the actual cause of this wooden life of Krebs. What he presents in the story should lead to what is absent, his life on the war front. Every sight of a beautiful girl must be taking him to the sexual experience he had with the French and the German prostitutes. The sight of the two girls in the picture points to the possibility of his heterosexual life. Sex for him has nothing to do with love but with prostitution. It has become a mechanical act. Therefore, his laziness is rooted in his psychic wound, which is further routed in sex. “Soldier’s Home” is a story written by Hemingway; the possibility of Krebs having experienced the tragedy of sexual illness cannot be ruled out. Krebs is only capable of saying “no” to everything his mother asks. His confession that he does not belong to “God’s kingdom” could imply that he belongs to Devil’s kingdom as a result of his sins. The world to which Krebs’s mother and sister belong is familiar to the readers, but Krebs’s world can be understood only by his fellow soldiers. Hence, the character visible on the surface of the story is only the tip of the iceberg; and Krebs, the real protagonist, lies buried beneath the narration. Krebs is torn between the society to which he has returned and the one which destroyed him. “If the individual is always instituted, again and again, by performing the norms laid down by its environment, this may account for Krebs’s difficulties in coping with the narrative of his past upon finding himself in a completely different setting,” writes Ruben. Looking at his family, Krebs feels that “the world they were in was not the world he was in” (Hemingway). He finds the past quite nauseating now. He also finds his identity lost. This is made evident in the short conversation with his mother. Therefore, the story has to be read from the socio-political angle, keeping an eye on the inner struggles of Krebs. It is to be noted that only war books interest Krebs. Probably he wants to verify the truthfulness of the life he lived from the events in the books he reads, as he cannot compare himself with the young people around him. Krebs is a symbol of the lost generation, who finds himself crushed by the senseless attitudes of his parents and society. Krebs’s father’s interest in real estate stands as a contrast to his indifference towards his son. The oversized uniform which he wears in the photograph symbolizes the oversized world into which he was hurled by his parents. His mother’s concern for him comes too late. “Now, you pray, Harold,” she said, and he replied “I can’t”. Even his seductive sister cannot arouse any emotion in him. The real paradox lies in the title itself, “Soldier’s Home”. Which is Krebs’s home is the obvious question: the one with his family in the story, or the one he lived in the war front with the soldiers and the prostitutes?
Krebs represents a mood reflecting the world-weariness of a generation which found itself lost as a result of the mad wars. As given in the introduction to Hemingway in the Anthology of American Literature, “This note of world-weary detachment is a part of the Hemingway mood (Anthology, p 57). “Soldier’s Home” is also, like Hemingway’s other works, an autobiographical story. In order to understand Krebs’s laziness, as discussed above, one must be familiar with Hemingway’s life as a soldier. There is absolutely no need to believe that Krebs is lazy. His laziness is that of Hemingway, and the generation to which he belonged.
Reference
Hemingway,Ernest. “Soldier’sHome”. Web.
Kobler, J. F. “Soldier’s Home Revisited: A Hemingway mea culpa – Ernest Hemingway”. Studies in Short Fiction, Summer, 1993.
De Baerdemaeker, Ruben.: “Performative patterns in Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home”, Hemingway Review (Hemingway Soc., Univ. of Idaho, Moscow) (27:1) [2007] , p.55-73,4-5.
Oliver, Egbert.S. American Literature: An Anthology. Eurasia Publishing House: New Delhi, 2000.
When plunging into the world of the Hispanic tradition in literature and visual art, it is not difficult to notice that this culture has its bright and charming peculiarities. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most significant Spanish-speaking authors who has kept the Hispanic spirit on his literary way; in his turn, Ernest Hemingway, who is considered to be an outstanding American writer, also experienced the strong influence of the Hispanic tradition, which can be explained by the facts of his biography: the author spent much time in Spain, including the days of his presence in Madrid during the Spanish civil war.
Thus, it would be rather interesting to compare their literary heritage in terms of both “matter and manner” and to find some similarities. The following analysis is devoted to The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Marquez (1994) and Nobody Ever Dies (2008) by Hemingway with separate references to the authors’ other works.
The first and the most evident similarity of the works mentioned above is the authors’ intent to rise above the earthly, primitive understanding of life and death and to show their personal perception of these phenomena. In his The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, Marquez manages to perform a man found by the villagers dead and alive simultaneously: despite he has met his death in the sea, he remains alive in the imagination of the people who have decided to rest his body.
Even after the death of flesh, the spirit of this man has remained able to bring changes to the life of those who are alive and to make them feel “that everything would be different from them on” (Marquez, 1994, p. 461). Thus, the essence of a human is shown as a metaphysical phenomenon, which cannot be influenced by death.
As well, Hemingway’s Nobody Ever Dies (Hemingway, 2008) reflects how the author, who had a sad experience of seeing death for many times, perceives the essence of death. The author states that there are matters that are able to outlast a human’s life and to make death insignificant, which is eloquently expressed in the story, “Where you die does not matter, if you die for liberty” (Hemingway, 2008). This thought is also reflected by the story’s name which highlights the immortality of human values and ideals, and by the author’s final words of a touchy epitaph On the American Death in Spain, “Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality” (Hemingway, n.d.).
As for the literary devices, the literary works of these two authors also possess some similar features. The Hispanic literature is full of visualization, it always creates bright pictures and eloquent images: it is sufficient to recollect Cervantes, who has presented the World the unforgettable images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza inspiring many painters and sculptors, or the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca, who was able to express his ideas by means of visual symbols, such as oranges, blue walls, or a Gypsy woman’s white hair.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Spain has enriched the World culture with the heritage of Picasso and Dali. In (1994), Marquez also uses the device of visualization and depicting details rather actively: a reader sees every detail of the story, including the man’s appearance, the scales on his face, the funeral flowers, and the cheerless landscape of the village. In his literary works, Hemingway also tended to use visualization and detailed descriptions: his The Old Man and the Sea is a meditative work full of contemplation (Hemingway & Kammer, 1995).
The author starts his Nobody Ever Dies with a few wide strokes which define the whole atmosphere of the story, “The house was built of rose-colored plaster that had peeled and faded with the dampness and from its porch you could see the sea, very blue, at the end of the street” (Hemingway, 2008). At the same time, in Nobody Ever Dies, the effect of the detailed depiction is reached by means of giving the floor to the perpetual characters’ dialogs which reflect their ideas and emotions.
Finally, it is impossible not to notice how much the sea means for both authors. This element also seems to have overgrown the matters of life and death and keeps its silent wisdom, like the lines of the immortal authors’ works do.
References
Hemingway, E. M. (2008). Nobody Ever Dies. Web.
Hemingway, E. M. (n.d.). On the American Death in Spain. Web.
Hemingway, E. M., & Kammer, P. (1995). The Old Man and the Sea. München: Hueber.
Marquez, G. G. (1994). The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds), Fiction: Reading, Reacting, Writing. USA: Paulinas.
The novel, A Farewell to Arms, is a classic romance written by Ernest Hemingway. Events in the story happen during on the First World War in Italy. The story features a blossoming love affair between Lieutenant Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley. The two characters meet at a battle frontline. Catherine is a British nurse working in a British hospital located in Italy. Henry is an American volunteer serving in Italy as an army ambulance driver. In this paper I will discuss the love and pain the two individuals undergo while trying to escape the harsh realities of war while taking time deal with their emotional distresses.
The story commences where Henry is portrayed as a drunken man whose free time is reserved for drinking and chasing women. His only fascination is the priest who intrigues him with a faith that is constant in times of peace or war. Ernest Hemingway portrays Henry as a man in emotional distress. He has tried everything from being a drifter to volunteering as an ambulance driver in a war torn place while searching for peace and love. Although he does not say much about his past, it is evidently that has been a lonely man who is out to seek life’s satisfaction.
Catherine on the other hand, meets Henry just as she is mourning the death of her fiancé of eight years. Catherine’s fiancé had died in the skirmishes of First World War. She starts flirting with Henry soon after explaining her loss to him. Here, we see the pain that Catherine is going through and desperately need a shoulder to cry on. The circumstances that surround her do not give her the chance to mourn the death of her loved one. In Henry she finds the solace a place where she can find comfort and forget her lose.
At the beginning of the story, they both are playing a game of love. They have burdens in their hearts and need to let go. Henry only interest is to have some fun with Catherine to forget the tough experience of the war. Catherine is also undergoing a difficult time with the death of her fiancé and the horrors of war. She therefore uses Henry as a scapegoat to forget the harsh realities of life that are drowning on her. Here, the theme of game is evident where they are playing a love game just to forget the loss and pain they are going through.
Their love develops from flirting to real love. They have many things in common and hence a better way to extent their relationship to a higher level. The irony of the matter is that while their love blossoms the war intensifies. The effects of war are too much and this makes them drift apart. Their separation acts as a catalyst as they discover the true meaning of love and the reason they should be together. Catherine is pregnant and in need of a place to stay for the arrival of the baby. Henry on the other hand has to find a way to be reunited with his love. He has to flee the war to be united with his love. He disregards the honor of his service to search Catherine. These aspects illustrate the degree of the emotional connections between the two.
The story has a sad end where the aspect of lose repeats itself when Henry loses his son and Catherine during a difficult childbirth. Henry is brought back to the drawing board where he is embraced by a feeling of despair. He heads back to his hotel with a broken heart the death of Catherine. The story is full of emotional pain that the readers are quick to experience. The author was trying to convey the extreme of war on human emotion. The way the realities of war push individuals to seek solace in one another.
An ideal character gladly accepted by American readers as a men’s man is the one known “Hemingway hero” common among many of Ernest Hemingway’s novels. In the novel “The Sun Also Rises”, four men are evaluated as they connect in some form of association with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who spoils in her passion for sex and control.
Brett projected a scheme to get married to her fiancée for some superficial reasons, absolutely defeats one man emotionally and spiritually, keeps apart from another to conceive the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and refuses and humiliates the man whom she loves most greatly. Brett all relationships develop in few months, as she either accepts or rejects certain values or qualities of each man. Brett, with the help of her four love affairs as a vibrant and self-controlled woman, represents Hemingway’s standard definition of a man and/or masculinity. Each man Brett has a love association within the novel possesses different qualities and values that enable Hemingway to discover what it is to truly be a man. The Hemingway man thus portrayed is a man of practice, self-discipline, self-reliance, strength, and courage to cope with all weaknesses, fears, failures, and even death.
The supposed hero of the novel Jake Barnes, a few years back fell in love with Brett and is still strongly and uncontrollably in love with her. Unfortunately, Jake is a victim of the war, emasculated in an accident. Still, at the beginning of the novel adjusting to his impotence, Jake and Brett cannot be lovers and all efforts at a relationship that is sexually fulfilling are simply gone waste. Jake has lost all his power and desire to have sex. Brett is a passionate, lustful woman who is driven by the closest and caring act two may share, Jake’s powerlessness only puts the two in a great ironic situation, something that Jake cannot provide her. Brett is an extremely sexy woman but is rejected by the man she feels true love and admiration for. Jake has loved Brett for years and cannot have her because of his inability to have sex. It is clear that Brett and Jake’s love is reciprocal when Jake tries to kiss Brett on the cab ride home: “‘You mustn’t. You must know. I can’t stand it, that’s all. Oh darling, please understand!’, ‘Don’t you love me?’, ‘Love you? I simply turn all to jelly when you touch me’” (26, Ch. 4).
This scene indicates the hopelessness of their relationship as Jake and Brett hopelessly desire each other but realize the uselessness of further actions. Together, they have both tried to confront reality but remained unsuccessful. Jake is aggravated by Brett’s reappearance into his life and her declaration that she is miserably unhappy. Jake asks Brett to go off to the country for a fraction of period with him: “‘Couldn’t we go off in the country for a while?’, ‘It wouldn’t be any good. I’ll go if you like. But I couldn’t live quietly in the country. Not with my own true love’, ‘I know’, ‘Isn’t it rotten? There isn’t any use my telling you I love you’, ‘You know I love you’, ‘let’s not talk. Tailing’s all bilge’” (55, Ch. 7).
Brett rejected Jake’s useless effort to have some time together. Both know that any relationship beyond a friendship would be fruitless and cannot be perused. Jake is trying to adjust his impotence while Brett will not be ready to sacrifice a sexual relationship for the man she loves dearly. (Rudat, 43-68) Eventually Jake and Brett develop a new relationship for themselves, as they can not be good lovers for each other, perhaps one far more dangerous than that of mere lovers – they have become best friends. Brett’s presence is twofold pleasurable and painful this serves as a great difficulty for Jake, while Brett constantly reminds him of his handicap and thus Jake is challenged as a man. At the end of their first meeting, Jake feels miserable: “This was Brett that I had felt like crying about. Then I thought of her walking up the street and of course in a little while I felt like hell again” (34, Ch. 4).
Lady Brett Ashley becomes a challenge for weakness Jake must confront. Jake has attempted to reimburse the man he is and the first step in doing this is to acknowledge his misery. Though Brett has a lot of love for Jake, she gets involved in getting married to another. Mike Campbell is Brett’s fiancé; the third one she planned to marry after two already failed. Mike is absurdly in love with Brett and though she knows this, she still decides to marry him. Brett tired off the drifting and simply needs an anchor to rest in, which she finds in Mike. Mike loves Brett but does not solely dependent on her affection. Moreover, he knows about Brett’s affairs with other men and accepts these short affairs: “‘Mark you. Brett’s had affairs with men before. She tells me all about everything’” (143, Ch. 13). Mike appraises Brett’s beauty, as do all the other males in the novel, but perhaps this is as deep as his love for her goes. In the first scene in the novel, Mike cannot stop commenting and figure out remarks on Brett’s beauty: “‘I say Brett, you are a lovely piece. Don’t you think she’s beautiful?’” (79, Ch. 8) He constantly proposes the same question but does not make any observant or immoral comments on his wife-to-be. In fact, throughout the novel, Mike continues this pattern, once referring to Brett as “just a lovely, healthy wench” as his most deep comment. Furthermore, Mike losses self-control when he becomes drunk, making immoral remarks that exhibit his lack of respect for Brett and others.
After Brett shows interest in Pedro Romero, the bullfighter, Mike offensively bawl: “Tell him bulls have no balls! Tell him Brett wants to see him put on those green pants. Tell him Brett is dying to know how he can get into those pants!” (176, Ch. 16) Additionally, Mike cannot consider the complications of Brett and her relationships: “‘Brett’s got a bull-fighter. She had a Jew named Cohn, but he turned out badly. Brett’s got a bull-fighter. A beautiful, bloody bull-fighter’” (206, Ch.18) Despite Brett’s short love story with Pedro Romero, she would return to Mike who will no doubt openly welcome her again. Brett is the kind of woman, who can control most men, and Mike is no exception. She loosely simplifies their relationship when she explains to Jake that she plans to return to him: “‘He’s so damned nice and he’s so awful. He’s my sort of thing’” (243, Ch. 19). Mike is not difficult enough to confront Brett, but she does go on and decide to accept his simplicity anyways. Although he is self-reliant, Mike has little self-control or self-respect. Furthermore, despite his engagement with Brett, Mike betrays Hemingway’s, ideal man.
Brett’s double standards being the fiancé of one man on the other hand is in love with another disregard her. She reveals to Jake every early in the novel that she had invited Robert Cohn to go with her on a trip to San Sebastian. Cohn, a Jewish, middle-aged writer disillusioned with his life in Paris, wants to escape to South America, where he envisions meeting the ebony princesses he romanticized from a book. However, he cannot persuade Jake to accompany him and then completely forgets about this idea upon meeting Brett. Cohn is immediately enamored with her beauty and falls in love with her: “‘There’s a certain quality about her, certain fineness. She seems to be absolutely fine and straight’” (38, Ch. 5). Cohn is immature in his idealization of Brett’s beauty, as he falls in “love at first sight”. Additionally, like an adolescent, he attempts to satisfy his curiosity about Brett by asking Jake numerous questions about her. After Cohn and Brett’s short-lived affair in San Sebastian, Cohn is nervous around Jake: “Cohn had been rather nervous ever since we had met at Bayonne. He did not know whether we knew Brett had been with him at San Sebastian, and it made him rather awkward” (94, Ch. 10).
Furthermore, Cohn has feared that when Brett would come across, she would humiliate him and so he does not have the maturity to behave properly in front of Jake and his friend, Bill Gorton. Nonetheless, Cohn is proud of his affair with Brett and believes that this conquest makes him a hero. (Elliot, 77-94) When Brett appears with her fiancé Mike, Cohn believes that they are destined for one and another despite her bold coldness to him. However, it is obvious that Brett simply used Cohn to satisfy her sexual longing: “‘He behaved rather well’” (83, Ch. 9). Cohn does not understand the inconsequence of their trip to San Sebastian in Brett’s mind and has become dependent on her attention and love. In his uncontrolled drunkenness, Mike blasts Cohn: “‘What, if Brett did sleep with you; she’s slept with lots of better people than you. Tell me Robert, Why do you follow Brett around like a poor bloody steer? Don’t you know you’re not wanted?’” (143, Ch. 13)
Cohn is like a teenager, as he knowingly ignores the truth and continues to love Brett:
“He could not stop looking at Brett. It seemed to make him happy. It must have been pleasant for him to see her looking so lovely, and know he had been away with her and that every one knew it. They couldn’t take that away from him” (146, Ch. 13). Cohn has the most significant of his affair with Brett. He does not understand that Brett simply used him and that their brief relationship has no meaning to her. Moreover, Cohn cannot conduct himself with dignity and he intrudes upon people and places where he is not wanted (Blackmore, pp. 49-67).
Honestly, Cohn believes in the fact that he has slept with Brett and obsesses with her. When Brett begins to exhibit signs of interest in Pedro Romero, Cohn crazily goes to Jake forcing them to know Brett’s whereabouts, punches him in the jaw, and then calls him a pimp. Later that night he encounters Pedro and Brett together in their hotel room. His actions of knocking Pedro down repeatedly until he eventually tires demonstrate a divergence from his character. Cohn undertakes some measures in what he experiences at the beginning, despite merely thinking or complaining about it. However, despite his persistence, Pedro does not remain down. According to Mike, “‘The bull-fighter fellow was rather good. He didn’t say much, but he kept getting up and getting knocked down again. Cohn couldn’t knock him out’” (202, Ch. 17). Resultantly, Cohn ends up in this race, is knocked twice by Pedro, and loses his battle for Brett. These actions exhibit that Cohn’s boxing skills, which act as a measure of defense that he once used in college, no longer help him to pull him out of rough conditions. Cohn fails to show the strength and courage needed to face the circumstances like a man.
Pedro Romero comes closest to the embodiment of Hemingway’s hero. This handsome, nineteen-year-old, a promising matador, almost immediately enchants Brett. Pedro, a courageous personality who repeatedly challenges death in his occupation, is not afraid in the bullring and controls the bulls like a master. Pedro is the first man since Jake who causes Brett to lose her self-control: “‘I can’t help it. I’m a goner now, anyway. Don’t you see the difference? I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to do something I really want to do. I’ve lost my self-respect” (183, Ch. 16)
On the other hand, Pedro balances his self-control in his first encounter with Brett: “He felt there was something between them. He must have felt it when Brett gave him her hand. He was being very careful” (185, Ch. 16) Pedro assures new pleasure to Brett who falls in love with him in the scene between Pedro and Cohn described previously, Pedro represents his confidence and strong will. Knocked. In the scene between Pedro and Cohn narrated previously, Pedro represents his faith and strong will. He has knocked downtime and time again; Pedro stands up each time declining the situation to be beaten. His managed and great behavior in an unusual situation contrasts verily with Cohn’s terror and flaw. (Strychacz, pp. 245-67)
Finally, Pedro and Brett eloped but when the demands of Pedro too much from her, Brett asks him to leave, “‘He was ashamed of me for a while, you know. He wanted me to grow my hair out. He said it would make me more womanly.” furthermore, Pedro “really wanted to marry” Brett because “‘he wanted to make it sure [Brett] could never go away from him’” (242, Ch. 19). Pedro will not tolerate his dreams for a woman and will not ignore Brett’s character even though he loves her. In his affair with Brett, he has committed as per his rules and when he examines that his ideal is impracticable for Brett to acknowledge, he leaves willingly. Pedro has been left uncontaminated by Brett, supporting his strong-willed, correct behavior. Additionally, Pedro leaves without brood like Cohn or whining like Mike.
Brett’s choice to accept or reject particular qualities in each of the four men she becomes involved with helping define Hemingway’s male hero. Mike is not reliant on Brett but does not preserve his self-esteem and self-discipline in his drunken negligence. Cohn is a bad-tempered, weak, long-suffering adolescent who has little understanding of others or himself. Pedro is the near-perfect one of strength, courage, and confidence. Jake is the minor translation of this perfection as the hero of the novel. Hence, Hemingway’s ideal hero is self-controlled, self-reliant, and fearless. He is a man of accomplishment and he does not, under any circumstances, go short in his viewpoint or principles (Nissen, pp. 42-57).
The supposed hero of the novel Jake is confronted by his misery in the deepest sense possible, and because the traditional ways in which masculinity is defined are insufficient and impossible for him. Jake desires the power and courage to deal with his weakness because he has not yet accustomed to this weakness. It is ironic that Cohn, as a character least like the Hemingway man, has slept with Brett, while Jake will never be able to perform this kind of action. Cohn so poorly performs the roles of an actual man, Hemingway involves the sexual invader of a woman does not alone fulfills the meaning of masculinity. However, Jake comes short to satisfy other perquisites of the Hemingway man as he diverges from his moral principals. Jake examines that Brett is fascinated by Pedro’s tactful control and unusual smartness and acknowledges the possibility of fulfilling her sexual desires with the most ideal case of manhood that he can offer in place of himself.
The trust of a long-time friend is thus betrayed by Jake, Montoya; fear that rising stars may be spoiled women. Regardless of his carnal impotence, Jake’s real weakness is the powerlessness of his will, and the hypothetical hero of the novel is flawed due to his failure to adhere to what he believes is right and wrong. Hemingway abstains from demonstrating a real hero of this novel. In the absence of a primary male model, Hemingway deceives the larger socio-cultural theories about men and masculinity and needs the conventional sources in which they are defined in his society.
In recent times much disrespect has been mound on the Hemingway hero. We think we know the type: a macho male always bragging about how big and strong he is. Everything he does is a test of manliness; if he doesn’t take chances, even foolish ones, he’s a coward or effeminate; if he hurts, he doesn’t cry but holds everything in. To us, there’s something funny and old-fashioned in such a caricature of a man. But like most popular images this model of a Hemingway hero is only a partial portrait. The truth is more complex. Certainly, Hemingway hated anything effeminate in a man, but there’s much evidence to suggest that his macho image was a mask that covered his insecurities about his manhood. As he became more famous he modeled his image on the tragic heroes of his books.
Who is the hero of The Sun Also Rises the query is of vital significance? You will find that Jake Barnes, the narrator, has the outline of a hero, but that he is fundamentally weak, impotent, and a party to the corruption of the true hero, Pedro Romero. When Hemingway crafts imaginary heroes like Jake Barnes, he demonstrates them in a generous glow: puzzled with worries, eventually not sure of themselves and their manhood, and unable to possess to their system of manly behavior. Hemingway’s heroes are made of flesh and bones, not cardboard; they don’t survive at the end, like Superman, but a crash in failure.
Any proof of joyful, fulfilling love in The Sun Also Rises? Hardly a trace. Jake and Brett can’t love either physically or emotionally, the two main characters. When they speak of the possibility of love, they are imagining life in another, better world. In the actual world, they inhabit, both are wounded, Jake physically, Brett psychically. Nothing can find any satisfaction or completeness in love. Robert Cohn loves, but it’s a silly, naive love predicated on storybook romances. Cohn immediately attracts Brett. As she’s part inquisitive, partly fed up, she runs off with him. What does their romance mean? For Brett it is nothing but for Cohn everything. He persists to consider against all confirmation that theirs is perfect love. He’s wrong, of course, and all the other models despise him for his sightlessness (Baldwin, pp. 14-33).
Mike is drunker and is too insecure to love, despite Brett’s fiancé. Bill Gorton picks up an American girl at the fiesta, but nothing comes of it–he’s too cynical to love. Pedro Romero, the hero of Hemingway’s a man young, innocent, passionate, and brave enough to love leaves him. He falls for Brett and wants to marry her. But Brett, knowing she’ll ruin him, gives him up. Robert Cohn launches as a central actor, whose life is full of dangers. At Princeton, he has taken up boxing as a defense measure for uncertainties of life being a Jewish. He is overmatched and gets his nose flattened, which diverts his interest from boxing and starts disliking it, but likes the power his skill can give him. No one since school age remembers him. He “was married by the first girl who was nice to him”.
The novel The Sun Also Rises is a representation of Americans wondering for new characteristics and values in a world in which old standards have been blown away by war. Jake, the basic originator is involved in Count Mippipopolous, who seems to know exactly what he wants and how to get it. But the count’s worth scheme is simply to disburse as little for as much as possible. Pedro Romero is strong in analyzing what’s right and wrong, but he doesn’t chat about it. He simply does his work completely wrestles bulls and carries out his life with love, or passion, which both Hemingway and his characters greatly admire. Romero’s affliction is as untarnished and pure as the bullfighter himself.
Characters have settled for around empty grounds of drinking and sex in Paris. Romero is different. He gets whatever he needs because he deserves it, he doesn’t need to buy pleasure. He doesn’t need to shop for love because he is part of life; he experiences it from the inside. The novel continues to affect the characters after six years of World War I. Jake’s genital wound disappointed and destroyed his hope of having a sexual life; the death of a soldier, Brett’s first true love, ruined her capacity for selfless love. Recapturing exhilaration of war character goes to Spain for bullfighting, to experience the same excitement during the war, which in turn promotes destructive moods. The fiesta more like a battlefield, it attracts the four characters to something great than the characters are themselves and makes them ignore their own meager lives.
Works Cited
Baldwin, Marc D., “Class Consciousness and the Ideology of Dominance in The Sun Also Rises,” McNeese Review 33 (1990): 14-33.
Blackmore, David, “In New York It’d Mean I was a…: Masculinity Anxiety and Period Discourses of Sexuality in The Sun Also Rises,” The Hemingway Review 18.1, (1998): 49-67.
Elliot, Ira, “Performance Art: Jake Barnes and ‘Masculine’ Signification in The Sun Also Rises,” American Literature 67.1 (1995): 77-94.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner’s Paperback Fiction, 1954
Nissen, Axel, “Outing Jake Barnes: The Sun Also Rises and the Gay World,” American Studies in Scandinavia 31.2 (1999): 42-57.
Rudat, Wolfgang, “Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises – Masculinity, Feminism, and Gender-Role Reversal,” American Imago 47.1 (1990): 43-68.
Strychacz, Thomas, “Dramatizations of Manhood in Hemingway’s In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises,” American Literature 61.2 (1989): 245-60.
The style employed by a writer acts as a mark of differentiation from the other writers. Stephen noted that a writer’s style points to the tone of the story which is critical for the reader to understand (85). Some of the factors that differentiate writers are the use of figurative language such as symbolism, personification, similes, metaphors, and hyperboles (Pisano and Holder 7). This paper compares and contrasts William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway with respect to “A Rose for Emily” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. “A Rose for Emily” is a remarkable story, which starts with a flashback about the death of Emily Grierson, the main character.
The story is written from the perspectives of Emily and the community and combines the past and the future to depict power and love. On the other hand, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is about a writer who is dying due to a gangrene infection while on a safari. Hemingway starts the story with an epigraph, a narration relating to a lone leopard on the tip of Kilimanjaro. The comparison of the works of the two writers will be based on figures of speech.
Main body
Hemingway and Faulkner use figurative language to elicit pity and frustration about the issues that affect the main characters. This forms the basis of building the themes of the stories. In respect to the two stories, the common figure of speech is the use of metaphors to point to different aspects of life affecting the main characters in the stories. According to Stephens, Hemingway uses allusions, meanings, and symbolic functions to present the facts that the narrator is facing (86).
Hemingway employs metaphors to depict the infection Harry is suffering from. This signifies the depth of creativity that shifts the story from a straightforward tale to an allegory. For example, Harry the narrator states, “they are around every camp. You never notice them. You can’t die if you don’t give up” (Hemingway 2). The use of the phrase alludes to deeper issues that affect the writer; hence, drawing the parallel between the factual gangrenes infection which can cause death and the real-life situation of neglect.
Similarly, in the Rose for Emily, Faulkner uses metaphors to point to the past neglect. For example, the narrator states that “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument….” (Faulkner par. 1)The fallen monument is used to point to the past which describes Emily’s life.
The two writers also use symbolism and personification. Hemingway starts the story with symbolism. “Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.”(Hemingway 1). In this case, the leopard is used to depict the life of Harry. On the other hand, Faulkner uses symbolism and personification to create a vivid picture of Emily’s life. For example, the state of the house Emily lived in exemplifies her life. “Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps….” (Faulkner par. 2)
In writing, images entail visuals used by a writer to draw the attention of the reader to certain issues (Stephens 4). Images relate to figurative devices such as metaphors and similes. In the snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway uses many visuals such as the mountain, the dead carcass of the leopard, the hyenas, and vultures. The images are used in a clear and simple way to display the setting and the atmosphere of the story. Faulkner also uses images but applies a different technique. For instance, he uses a lot of description and complex wording. For example, “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water and of that pallid hue” (Heller par. 11).
Conclusion
Differences between Hemingway and Faulkner also relate to how the writers present their literary works to the readers. For instance, Hemingway’s prose is stripped down, and he integrates it with imagery. This allows the presentation of the main theme in a manner that makes the reader feel part of the happenings. This is achieved by the use of first-person narration, which makes the reader be part of the seeing and action (Harding 22).
For example the use, “Love is a dunghill,” said Harry. “And I’m the cock that gets on it to crow” (Hemingway 4). The narration is based on the self-ruminations and memories. The imageries are used to depict the life of regret. This is contrary to Faulkner’s presentation of the theme of power and love in “A Rose for Emily”. The writer uses a different approach to capture the attention of the readers by teasing the imagination of the reader. For example, the writer uses conflicting cues to make the readers’ suspicion of the truth about Emily keep on growing.
Harding, Riddle. “He had never written a word of that: Regret and counterfactuals in Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”” Hemingway Review 30.2 (2011): 21- 35. Print.
War is a devastating event that affects countries and people’s lives and changes the way they perceive reality. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry is presented as an American medic who served in the Italian Army during World War I. He is a person with no background, religion, culture, or life principles; however, he is ready to help Italy in tough times. Frederick Henry’s attitude in Ernest Hemingway’s book A Farewell to Arms to the war and sacrificing for Italy changes drastically due to the incident with the Italian military police, which affects his further behavior.
Frederick Henry in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms
Initially, the main character is represented as a hedonist and a careless man. He is shown as a liar and a reckless man who finds pleasure in wine and women (Shmoop). However, Henry was passionate about helping Italy and its people and executed his duties properly and efficiently (Sarkar). Once, a nurse asked him about the reason for such an attitude, and he answered: “I was in Italy, and I spoke Italian” (Hemingway 22). Thus, he saw sense in his work and felt a strong desire for commitment to the country.
Even though the reason may not be that strong for the ordinary person, it is for Henry. However, he drastically changed his attitude because of the incident when he was almost executed by military police because “he speaks Italian with an accent” (Hemingway 238). The man was discouraged by such an attitude and realized that his sacrifices were in vain, and he got no benefit from them.
I had a situation when my perspective drastically changed in my personal life. For a long time, I was biased against Asian people. I was 16 when I met an incredible, kind, and warm-hearted young lady from Japan who changed my attitude and perception. We became good friends, and I was astonished that they are the same people as we are. This situation was highly beneficial for my life: it showed that people are the same despite their race.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Frederick Henry is a controversial character with different traits and perspectives. The man is a hedonist who strives to gain pleasure and benefit from everything. Initially, he had a strong desire to help the country during World War I. His attitude and behavior then changed after the military police attempted to execute him. This incident discouraged him from helping Italy and its people.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (1993) is one of the most famous existential stories of the distinguished American writer Ernest Hemingway. In this piece, an old man drinks whiskey, a stack of saucers growing in front of him. Two waiters close the pub for the night, exchanging, quite in Hemingway style, various minor remarks. The younger one is in a hurry to go home, the older one hesitates, he clearly does not want to leave, although it is already deep night. He has lived a long life and knows: there is nothing in the world, except for a tiny light surrounded by hopeless darkness. In this story, the feeling of hopelessness, meaninglessness of life reaches its climax.
An old man discussed by the waiters is in despair, but it does not come from poverty. From the dialogue between the two waiters, we learn that he tried to commit suicide and failed only because his niece saved him.
“He was in despair.”
“What about?”
“Nothing.”
“How do you know it was nothing?”
“He has plenty of money.” (Hemingway, 1933, p.288).
A person, especially a lonely person, very often seeks shelter next to people, even if they are not noticed. In this tragic, doomed world, it was necessary to find at least some kind of anchor, at least a straw to cling to. However, in essence, there is darkness full of meaninglessness beyond this cafe.
There are no human meanings in the world. This idea is essential for American literature, where God is irrational and incomprehensible. There are no human meanings in the world: “It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too.” (Hemingway, 1933, p.291). Such is the hopeless conclusion that one of the heroes of the story comes to. Senses are a person’s attempt to overcome his loneliness, speak emptiness, an attempt to connect himself with a meaningless world.
The feeling of tragedy permeated most of Hemingway’s works of the first decade of his work – from the mid-20s to the mid-30s. The writer perceived the surrounding reality as a mosaic of large and small human tragedies, which embodied a fruitless pursuit of happiness, a desperate search for harmony within oneself, and loneliness among people.
Reference
Hemingway, E. (1933). A clean, well-lighted place. Complete Short Stories, 288-291.
Hemingway’s story A Farewell to Arms gave a new way of thinking about and discussing war. After enlisting, Fredrick Henry saw the actual cost of freedom and seen personally the suffering and loss of life that soldiers undergo for the nation. The novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway demonstrates the similarities between my life and Henry’s, resulting in a metamorphosis due to improved knowledge.
A Farewell to Arms is generally on the impossibility of retaining virtue under trying conditions. During the disorganized retreat of the Italian army, Frederic shoots an engineer who refuses to assist with a vehicle and then abandons the exact vehicle (Hemingway 218). Later, he concludes he can make a separate peace with war and leaves his post (Hemingway 220), meaning that his morals trump whatever legal duties he may have to remain in the military. However, the encounter with the engineer illustrates that Frederic is morally adrift in an incoherent environment.
In 2020, the world was ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, which badly affected many individuals. I had to bear witness to the anguish and agony my beloved family endured after contracting the sickness since I, too, was not spared. Knowing that losing a loved one to the illness was only a matter of time was terrible, and it meant making the most of the remaining time with those who meant the most. My faith in God was greatly shaken, and I wondered why He would permit His creation to undergo such violent upheavals. I had much time to contemplate since I was too busy grieving for my friends and family and trying not to think about what was happening. During this time, I learned to appreciate my closest friends and the gift of life itself. Similarly, Fredrick finds himself in the middle of the war, hence enlisting as a soldier, during which he loses his morality due to the experiences he witnesses.
Hemingway demonstrates how a person’s outlook and perspective can shift significantly due to painful experiences. Frederic Henry’s perspective on war undergoes a profound transformation as a direct result of his exposure to horrifying images while serving his country, and as a consequence, he gradually loses his sense of morality. Therefore, the story demonstrates how quickly people can adapt their thinking when presented with a catastrophe like the COVID-19 epidemic.
It is not a rare occurrence when literary characters are painted as highly exaggerated versions of their real-life prototypes, which are usually much more intricate and complicated in character than fictional characters. However, as evident from the further comparison and speculations about a dialogue between Hemingway’s Schwartz, Langston Hughes’ Roger and Francisco Jimenez’ Panchito, all of three exhibit unusual and almost tangible humanness. Part of it stems from the situations that the authors are putting their protagonists in – they do, indeed, feel extremely real – because the authors are writing from personal experience. By making the heroes so down-to-earth, it becomes possible to envision them interacting with each other – that is what is attempted with the current work.
Both the boys in Hemingway’s and Hughes’ stories exhibit strength of character somewhat unusual for their age. Schatz, a Hemingway’s character, in spite of being only nine years old, finds the expression of this strength of spirit in the form of stoic attitude that he adopts in face of hardship – in this case, influenza. Hughes’ Roger, is slightly different in that sense, demonstrating less of the characteristics of an adult, which is something Schwartz does more successfully, but the unifying trait that they both have is honesty. Roger, despite of being terrified by Mrs. Jones at first, speedily admitted his true intentions – “I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes” (Hughes, p. 56). This kind of demeanor is atypical to a young thief and is somewhat reminiscent of Dickenson’s characters. Above both boys being truly sincere and honest, they are similar in another way as well – Schwartz and Roger seem more reserved and not very talkative. This introversive quality potentially comes from their inclination of self-analysis, which could be the root of their pronounced wisdom, so rare for their young age.
In spite of their similarities on the matter of being extremely stoic, the lifestyles of the two boys, Hemingway’s and Jimenez’ differ enormously. Schatz, coming from a financially stable German family, apparently lives in a big country house in proximity to a picturesque creek. His family is easily able to afford a doctor visiting a boy, which starts to sound luxurious when compared to Panchito’s situation. From the insights of Panchito’s feelings and thoughts that Jimenez gives to the reader, it becomes clear that the boy can only dream of a life in a house, away from any worry. His family and himself are “braceros” – hired farm-laborers from Mexico that come to US to help the local farmers harvest their seasonal crops (Jimenez, p. 407). Due to the nature of such work, Panchito’s family is constantly moving, to the point which the mere sight of their belongings packed into cardboard boxes makes him hysterical. Most of all, he dreams of a stable, settled lifestyle – and unlike his peers, wishes to attend school. He seeks normality and stability, which Schwartz simply has it by default.
Regardless of the characters showing signs of high moral standards, it is possible that Panchito could encourage Roger’s criminal behavior. He is away from home, his family barely making the ends meet, his life having turned into a constant mental battle with stress related to the hard labor and lack of stability. Committing a petty crime could give him a relief from the harsh reality by offering financial aid. Panchito seems to be on the verge of breaking down, and perhaps, he could approve of such behavior because he would see an opportunity in the criminal act. Therefore, he could give an advice to Roger to continue mastering the craft of theft, so the future prospects would be potentially brighter.
It would be fascinating to see what these three different, yet very similar characters would advice each other in the situations enunciated by the writers. The nature of the relationships they would form only showcases the complexities of human character. What Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and Francisco Jimenez wanted to exemplify in their short stories was human versatility, while accentuating the sincerity of a child.
References
Hemingway, E. (n/d). “A Day’s Wait”. Fiction and Nonfiction, (pp. 76-78).