Ernest Hemingway

1. Ernest Hemingway 1899 -1961

2. Life • born in Oak Park, Illinois (near Chicago) • father: a successful physician, middle class, love fishing and hunting; mother: music teacher • a happy childhood; a lover of brutal sports, such as boxing and football in middle school • Though his father hoped him to be a physician, Hemingway refused to enter university. He chose to be a reporter. • During WWI, he wanted to join the army but was refused because of his poor eyesight. Then Hemingway came to Italy to work as an ambulance driver. He was seriously wounded in the battlefield. The nightmarish war experience changed his life.

3. Life • After the war, he still worked as a reporter. He was sent to Paris and was encouraged to write. • He also worked as a war reporter in the Spanish Civil War and WWII. • He was a tough guy. • Loved tough games: boxing, hunting, deep-sea fishing, bullfighting. • He was injured many times. In all the operations, 237 steel fragments were taken out from Hemingway’s body. He also suffered 3 car accidents and 2 air crushes. He was admired as a hero by many people. • In 1961, Hemingway shot himself with a gun in his home.

4. Works • “The Sun Also Rises” 1926 • the life of a generation after WWI • “A Farewell to Arms” 1928 • a tragic story about war and love • “For Whom the Bell Tolls” 1940 • Spanish civil war - also about war and love

5. Works • “The Old Man and the Sea” 1952 • In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize

6. Themes • Common theme of his novels: “grace under pressure” • Hemingway heroes: a noble but tragic hero; fighting with the overwhelming force; though he knows that he will be defeated at last, he decides to act like a hero

7. His Writing Iceberg principle 1 Code hero 2 Emphasis on Emotion 3 Colloquial style 4

8. Iceberg principle • “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn't show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.”

9. Code hero • The “Hemingway Code” of manhood does not involve mere physical strength, sexual potency, or ability to accumulate (or spend) wealth. • According to this code, a man is defined by will, pride, and endurance: the endurance to accept pain, even loss-when the loss cannot be avoided; the pride of knowing that one has done one's best, with the courage to act truly according to one's own nature; and the will to face defeat or victory without whining on one hand or boasting on the other.

10. Emphasis on Emotion • He was interested in conveying a deep emotional feeling. He did have some realistic techniques, but on the whole he was not like the realistic writers because he was more interested in conveying his personal emotion. And this is the goal of many modernist writers --- recreate the feelings of the situation or experience in the reader, arouse an involuntary subjective response.

11. Colloquial style • influence from Mark Twain and his journalist career • Concrete, specific, common words • Simple, short sentences • Direct, clear and positive style, yet highly connotative • The Nobel Prize Committee praised Hemingway’s “powerful style forming mastery of the art”.