Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A Short Biography


Ernest Hemingway was born in Oakland, Illinois on July 21st, 1899 and was the first son in a family of seven, including both his parents. Using his own social experiences with his family he began to write short stories that used fictional character Nick Adams as an autobiographical protagonist. His parents nurtured him despite their rocky relationship, to become an adult who appreciated both the arts and nature.


He gained experience writing for his school newspaper in progressive Oakland city and it eventually lead him to take up a position with the Kansas City Star, his first serious introduction to the world of publishing. After almost a year, Hemingway left the Star to join the American Red Cross and fight in World War I in April of 1918.

Coming home from the war in 1919, Hemingway continued his career in journalism and went on to work for The Toronto Star in Canada and had his first of four marriages in 1921. Soon after, he met Sherwood Anderson who would eventually befriend him and convince him to move to Paris. This is where Hemingway eventually became a part of what is referred to as “The Lost Generation,” which includes great authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce.  

With the publication of The Sun Also Rises in 1926, Hemingway had written what would be considered his most powerful novel, as it reflected a specific demographic – the post-war expatriates of the fading roaring 20’s. Hemingway moved his life around to many places – Key West, Africa, Cuba and finally Idaho – and fought in World War II in between his migrating. In 1954 he won the Nobel Peace Prize and took his own life in 1961, leaving three sons. 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The "Lost Generation" in Hemingway's Work: A Brief History


Ernest Hemingway’s America was tainted by depression and despair amidst beautiful pastoral scenes. Hemingway, being someone who was foremost an admirer of nature, came to slowly despise the West. With the Prohibition Era looming, the country was quickly becoming morally bankrupt. By writing stories about the gruesome landscape he was raised in, Hemingway demonstrated how the beauty of the Western frontier was being corrupted by an America that was losing its values. This kind of behavior was prominent in the 1920's and 1930's, as the nation crept from problem to problem – Prohibition, Depression, and eventually World War I.

Although he wrote romantically about his region, Hemingway ultimately included the harsher realities about America in his stories. The generation that lived during this time featured a specific crowd that Ernest Hemingway found himself a part of after his time fighting in World War I. The “Lost Generation” was a group of famous authors who came of age during the war. They became expatriates who moved to Paris to start a new life and go after the dreams they could not reach in America.

Similarly to the protagonist of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s time spent in Paris while surrounded by authors like Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald, included drinking alcohol, cafĂ© hopping, and traveling. His somewhat decadent life, whilst consistently writing and publishing work, was tainted by alcoholism and marriage problems. He used his experience as a man of the 1920’s and 30’s to create a work that epitomized the generation – he wrote of helplessness and confusion in the post-war American mind and their depression and disparity that caused them to play out fantasy lives across the sea.

Gender Roles Shift in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises


           An oddly distinct characteristic of by The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway is the portrayal of gender in each of the main characters. The lines between the sexes are blurred as Lady Brett Ashley takes on a masculine, leading role in her relationships and Jake Barnes is “crippled” into what can be perceived as a weak, female state by his inability to procreate. One of the leading themes in the novel is the way that these characters interact with each other – and that of course is affected by the gender identity. By portraying both men and women as weak and strong, Hemingway is making a statement about gender fluidity and how the sexes aren’t as different as they appear.

            During a time in which women were gaining more freedom to change, the leading (and basically sole) female character in Ernest Hemingway’s novel, Lady Brett Ashley, demonstrates this new age femme with her carefree nature. She dresses like a boy, has short hair, and spends most, if not all, her time surrounded by men. She controls the lives of the men around her with her mere presence. Although she is kind of presented as a two-dimensional character who is manipulative and fickle, her past is revealed to be an abusive one in which she was forced to flee from her husband and become a stronger, independent woman. This character makes evident the how multifaceted a person can be by having characteristics associated with both genders.

            In contrast to the “mannish” Lady Brett Ashley, the “unmanned” Jake Barnes (Banache 38) is an example of the emasculated victims of World War I. His inability to leave Brett after countless occurrences of her emotional infidelity and Brett’s reason for not staying with him (the consummation of their love being a physical impossibility) are both ways that Hemingway presents Jake as non-traditional male. Jake isn’t the only non-traditional male either – with Robert Cohn there is an even more striking example of femininity in Hemingway’s fictional male. Even though he “cared nothing for boxing,” Cohn dedicates himself to the sport to learn to defend himself from the “emotional injury of being tormented for his Jewish heritage” (Banache 38). By suggesting that gender may be learned or performative, Hemingway questions the very core definitions of male and female.

            Despite that it may seem as if the gender roles have switched, they have not completely. There are still traces of both stereotyped genders in every character. Brett is still needy and self-conscious – using Jake for romantic love and financial stability at times. Jake is still jealous and independent, he gets into a physical fight with Robert Cohn in order to prove his masculinity and authority. His superiority-complex shines through when he discusses the life-choices of his comrades – for example, his disdain of Cohn’s romantic idea of South America. Ironically, they are similar; both Cohn and Jake share the characteristic of being masochistic. Their stubborn nature is an example of both masculinity and femininity. Although Robert’s longing for a romantic life is mostly ridiculed by the other men in The Sun Also Rises, Jake is still a romantic character  and represents a new kind-of romanticism where intimacy in found not in physical consummation but in sensitivity. His role as narrator gives to Jake a kind of love that he and the characters around him cannot find in a hopeless post-war generation.

            What lead Hemingway to write his characters in such a way? His accurate reflections on the reality of gender in society is what made The Sun Also Rises so wildly popular (Unrue). Women had to learn to be strong during the absence of men during World War I and men came back emotionally vulnerable and physically weak. It’s not so much a matter of Hemingway creating the issue of androgyny as much as it was an accurate representation of what the nation and people in the warring countries were going through. Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, and Jake Barnes are not the only characters that Hemingway utilizes to demonstrate the gender role switch and changes in expectations of the people during this time. Francis Clyne is a confrontational woman who doesn’t want children and Georgette is a prostitute who orders a drink for herself and makes a living for herself as well in a loveless society. Both women are examples of a more fluid definition of their sex. The minor male characters like Michael and Count Mippipopolous perform their sex as if it were a show, masquerading as if they were extremely masculine post-war heroes. They do this in order to hide their insecurities as men in the same loveless society. Since all the characters demonstrate some form of gender fluidity then it is evident that it may be both Hemingway’s statement about gender as well as the actual changes occurring in the mid-1920’s that make these characters so dynamic.

            The Sun Also Rises is a book about human nature and its resilience. The characters adapt to change or fall behind; learning that despite the metaphorical stormy night that seems to define their entire lives, the sun also rises, there is still hope. The characters adapting to change is evident in their gender fluidity – adapting to a new generation and doing what they feel that they must, almost to a fault, to find some semblance of happiness. Hemingway seems to be suggesting perhaps a less severe version of what his fictional characters choose to do in order to make it to the next day. He highlights Jake’s good characteristics: a sensitive individual who is cautious and passionate, mainly feminine traits and also highlights Brett’s good characteristics: tenacity and individualism, the strong qualities usually identified in males. The Sun Also Rises suggests that by adapting to both genders’ traits, a person can be more resilient and well-rounded and can increase their chances of a happier outcome in life during a post-war generation that longs for security, prosperity, and romance. 

Words: 1000

Settings in "The Sun Also Rises"


Ernest Hemingway's acclaimed novel The Sun Also Rises takes place in several unique settings. The characters embark on a pilgrimage through several European destinations, far removed from their homes. Paris and Madrid are the main locations in which the novel develops its scenes. The setting is crucial, as it often affected the ways in which the characters interacted with each other.

Behind the cut are some photos of places mentioned in The Sun Also Rises.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Bibliography


Work Cited

Banache, Jenifer. "Gender Identity and the Modern Condition of "The Sun Also Rises."" Salem Press

Ernest Hemingway (21 July 1899-2 July 1961). John C. Unrue. Nobel Prize Laureates in
Literature, Part 2. Ed. Jeffrey Louis Decker. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 330. Detroit: Gale, 2007. p309- 325.

Fleming, Robert E. “American Nightmare: Hemingway And The West.” Midwest Quarterly 30.3
(1989): 361-371. America: History & Life. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.                                                                                                                                              .
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. 1926. New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 2006

Images