Hemingway Notes

Notes on Hemingway

            Like Faulkner, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature.  Be sure to read about him in the head note and note his birth place and year he won the Nobel Prize.  He is famous for being somewhat macho with characters that were bull fighters and soldiers and big game hunters, all kinds of REAL men.  Be able to identify the subject of these novels:  Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea.

            Much of Hemingway’s fiction is a response to World War I (1914 – 1918) and its damage to the generation that fought in that war.  Many European cities were damaged beyond anything they had ever seen before, so that the landscape often looked like a wasteland.  More importantly, those who survived the war were often not just physically injured, but also emotionally and spiritually injured (much as Vietnam vets today).  The young Americans who came of age during that war were called “The Lost Generation.”  They were the first of their families to travel to Europe extensively and do there the kinds of things not allowed at home: smoke, drink, and have casual sex, for example. 

            Hemingway wrote about heroes, partly because he saw himself as a hero too.  His machismo makes today’s critical readers wonder if he was insecure about his own masculinity.   

 The women:

 Although, modern critics tend to disagree, the traditional view of the female characters is that Hemingway basically has two women types in all his fiction:  the nurse and the b****.  I tend to agree with the traditional view, so which category does Helen fall into?

Also:

            Hemingway's own suicide in 1961 began what we know as the Hemingway curse.  His brother Les committed suicide, as did his niece and several others.  Their big problem, apparently, was addiction of all kinds. 

            One of his granddaughters, Lorian Hemingway, lived much of her life in Mississippi and considers it home.  Her book A World Turned Over (2002) is about the tornado that destroyed the Candlestick Shopping Center, two blocks from her home in south Jackson, in 1966.

 The Hemingway Code Hero:

            Hemingway defined the Code Hero as "a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." 

1. The Code Hero measures himself by how well he handles the difficult situations that life throws at him. In the end the Code Hero will lose because we are all mortal, but the true measure is how a person faces death. 

2.  The Code believes in "Nada," a Spanish word meaning nothing. The Code Hero does not believe in an afterlife, so for him death is the end of it.

3.  The Code Hero is typically an individualist and free-willed. Although he believes in the ideals of courage and honor he has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage and endurance. A code hero never shows emotions; showing emotions and having a commitment to women shows weakness. Qualities such as bravery, love of adventure and travel also define the Code Hero. 

4.  A final trait of the Code Hero is his dislike of the dark. It symbolizes death and is a source of fear for him. The rite of manhood for the Code Hero is facing death. However, once he faces death bravely and becomes a man he must continue the struggle and constantly prove himself to retain his manhood.