Ernest Hemingway

ErnestHemingway Ben & Henry

Author Information • Full Name: Ernest Miller Hemingway • Birth: July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois • Death: July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho • Cause of Death: Depression, alcoholism-provoked suicide via shotgun

Author Information Famous Works • Three Stories and Ten Poems, 1923 • The Sun Also Rises, 1926 • A Farewell to Arms, 1929 • One Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, 1938 • For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940 • The Old Man and the Sea, 1952

Author Information Awards • Pulitzer Prize, 1953, for The Old Man and the Sea • Nobel Prize in Literature, 1954; he becomes the fifth American author to receive the award • Silver Medal for Military Valor, 1918; awarded by the Italian government

A Farewell To Arms A Farewell to Arms, written in 1929, takes place during World War I. The novel is set in various parts of Italy, both near and away from the Austrian front. Later on, however, the protagonists travel to Switzerland.

Main Characters • Frederic Henry: The narrator and protagonist. He is an American, but he drives ambulances and is a lieutenant in the Italian Army. • Catherine Barkley: An English nurse’s aide at the local British hospital who, at the novel’s beginning, is still emotionally recovering from the death of her fiancé. • Rinaldi: A surgeon in the Italian army. He is Henry’s best friend and introduces Henry and Catherine.

Summary The novel begins with Lieutenant Frederic Henry planning to tour of Italy with the Winter’s calming of the war. When he returns, he meets Catherine Barkley through his closest friend Rinaldi. Catherine and Frederic begin casually dating, using each other to remedy life’s pains.

Summary Henry later becomes wounded in the leg. He is sent to a hospital in Milan and prescribed six months of bed-rest. Luckily, though, he finds out that Catherine has been transferred to the same hospital. However, against the doctors’ recommendations, Henry requests immediate operation and then begins his long recovery. Throughout his recovery, Catherine and Henry’s relationship intensifies and become bona fide love.

Summary Once recovered, Henry is given only three weeks of leave before he is to return to the front. Catherine reveals to him that she is pregnant, and the two plan to go on a trip. Unfortunately, though, Henry is ordered back the following day because the hospital’s superintendent accused him of inflicting jaundice upon himself to avoid duty.

Summary Henry returns to the front to find the Italian Army losing. The Allied forces plan to retreat, and Henry is to lead other ambulance drivers during it. They deviate from the path of retreat for a shorter route. However, their vehicle gets stuck in the mud and they have to walk. One man of the party gets shot; another leaves the group to surrender. Only Henry and one other remain.

Summary The next day, the Army is in pandemonium; Henry and many others are captured by fellow Italians. Believed to be deserters, one by one they are questioned and executed. Henry luckily escapes before being questioned and swims downstream. He then takes a train to Milan to rejoin Catherine.

SUmmary After the two reunite, they are told to flee because Henry was to be arrested for what happened. The two escape to Switzerland and plan to build the perfect life in the town of Montreux: A life with no war or problems.

Summary With the approach of Catherine’s delivery, the two move to a town closer to the hospital. One morning, Catherine goes into labor. It becomes very long and complicated, and she eventually births a stillborn baby boy. Later that night, Catherine dies from hemorrhages.

The Relationship of Catherine and Henry At first, the two are essentially using each other to lessen reality. Catherine is still recovering from the loss of her fiancé; she uses Henry to help part with her past. Henry uses Catherine to escape from the realities of war. He also drinks heavily to obtain this effect. At the start, neither of them is really looking for love… Literary Elements

The Relationship of Catherine and Henry Soon after, their “love” grows real; greatly due to the time spent together during Henry’s recovery Their love becomes so strong that Henry risks imprisonment and death to be with Catherine, and Catherine flees the country to keep themselves safe and together Literary Elements

The Relationship of Catherine and Henry In Switzerland, they act as each other’s protectors from the world’s troubles. They strive to create an idyllic world centered around each other. The novel’s tragedy is the abrupt end of their love; demonstrating the common transience of worldly love. Literary Elements

Rain/Storms • Throughout the novel, trouble is often accompanied by rain… • Catherine alludes to this once when she tells Henry how the rain frightens her because it ruins love. • Her statement was validated with her death; it was during a rain storm. The night of her death, Henry walked back to the hotel alone, in the rain. Literary Elements

Rain/Storms The Allied forces’ retreat was also during a storm. The ambulance got stuck in the mud. During the storm, Henry brought out a seemingly-nonexistent side of him. He shot one of his an Italian engineer for dissention. Also, there was a storm the night that Catherine and Henry fled Italy for Switzerland. Literary Elements

My Personal Critique A Farewell to Arms, although rich with literary undertones and realities, was not, in my opinion, exceptional. I felt that it lacked adequate descriptions of scenes and events and had ambiguous dialogue. Aside from that, though, the story was a classic and entertaining tragedy.

The Old Man and the Sea

Characters • Santiago: The protagonist of the book. He is a very old Cuban man who is down on his luck as of late. He has high morals and believes that all noble and true beings are his brothers. He is respectful and mindful of everyone and every thing. Santiago displays an ultimate compassion for others and cares deeply for his boy apprentice, Manolin. Santiago has a love for baseball, especially his idol Joe DiMaggio.

Characters • Manolin: A young boy of untold age, he has been Santiago’s apprentice since he was only 5. He is probably a young man in his late teens now, but Santiago still refers to him as boy throughout the novel. Manolin looks up to Santiago in all ways, and is crushed when his parents prohibit fishing with Santiago because Santiago has had 84 days of no catches. Manolin is very interested in baseball, the same as Santiago.

Summary The Old Man and the Sea begins with Santiago and Manolin talking about how Manolin has been very lucky with his new boat. Santiago has had an 84 day long dry spell – him not catching a single fish. Manolin wishes to return to Santiago’s small skiff, but Santiago refuses it because it is against Manolin’s parents’ wishes. Manolin’s parents do not want him fishing with Santiago any more, even though Santiago has taught Manolin everything he knows about fishing, because they believe that Santiago is an old man who has become unlucky with his catches.

Summary Santiago goes out to sea without Manolin in hopes of finally receiving the luck he believes the ocean has withheld from him. He sets all of his lines, and begins to wait for a bite. He only has with him 2 oars, one bottle of water, 2 small tuna, his mast, and his skiff. He is waiting, watching, ever ready for any bite at all. After quite some time, he eventually receives a bite. A large bite. He waits patiently for the fish to swallow the hook, and he then strikes. But he quickly realizes that this is no ordinary fish or dolphin or shark, this is a giant marlin. The marlin pulls Santiago for 2 days, and over the course of which, Santiago develops an immense respect for the marlin and all creatures of the sea.

Summary As Santiago is being towed across the sea by the giant marlin, he remains resolute, even though he suffers greatly from miscellaneous things. Once, when the marlin made a leap, the old mans right hand was cut deeply by the fishing line. Also, after the old man untied, tied, and then retied knots for hours with solely his left hand, it cramped up as a claw and rendered itself unusable for a day. Santiago made himself take nourishment from the small fish he had caught earlier, eating raw tuna and fly fish. Once, he caught a dolphin, and brought that aboard. He gutted the dolphin and found two fly fish, which he ate because he believed they would nourish him more than the sweet, soft, and stringy meat of the dolphin.

Summary After 2 days of very little food and water and almost no sleep, the great marlin began to circle the boat, meaning that it’s strength was almost completely depleted. It circled the boat for a total of 4 hours, with Santiago all the ready to harpoon the giant fish. Eventually, the fish rolls over in attempt to rest, and Santiago thrusts his harpoon deep into the fishes heart, killing it. He is immediately reminded of how great a foe the marlin was, and thinks to himself how the people of his little town near Havana would be unworthy to eat it. How everybody is unworthy to eat it. It was such a noble fish and put up such a valiant effort, he thought to himself.

Summary The whole while this is going on, Santiago constantly reminds himself of his sanity by speaking to himself. He also brings up Joe DiMaggio a lot, mentioning that he has a bone spur in his ankle yet he still plays baseball. Santiago is trying valiantly, as he is constantly comparing himself to his baseball idol Joe DiMaggio.

Summary As Santiago is making his way back to the Terrace (the nickname for his port), he realizes that the marlin is attracting sharks. He kills the first shark by stabbing it through the brain with his harpoon. A pair of sharks comes next, which he has trouble engaging because he used most of his rope, including the rope to his harpoon, to tie the giant marlin to the side of his skiff. He thrusts his harpoon into one, killing it. However, while he killed the first, the second shark took a large bite of the belly of the marlin and took a lot of good meat from it. Santiago thrust his harpoon into the remaining shark, but when the shark jerked away, he lost the harpoon as the shark sank to the depths of the ocean.

Summary Santiago, not having a weapon, tied his carving knife to an oar and used that as a harpoon to defend himself from the next pack of sharks. He stabbed both, but neither died, and while stabbing the last one, his knife broke. In total, he had wounded 2 sharks and killed 3. This was however when he also realized that it was now futile for him to fight off sharks with his bare hands – he was old, tired, weary, and needed to conserve strength. He smacked at the sharks with his broken off rudder and oar, but to no avail. By the time he had reached the Terrace, his giant marlin was no more than a skeleton. When he got to the terrace, it was the early morning of the 4th day he was gone (or debatably the late night of the 3rd day). He unloaded his items, and left for his house with the mast of his skiff on his back, leaving his marlin tied to his skiff. He woke up the next day to Manolin with a warm cup of coffee. Manolin told him that the townsfolk were astonished at the size of the marlin – it was easily 18 feet large. Manolin announced that he would now always be with Santiago on his fishing trips, no matter what his parents say. The story ends with Santiago asking for a paper so he can read about baseball and Joe DiMaggio.

Literary Elements There are three main literary elements in The Old Man and the Sea. One is Santiago speaking to himself, another is Santiago’s idolization of Joe DiMaggio, and the last is how Santiago’s trip resembles that made by Jesus’ crucifixion.

Conversing with Myself: What Does it Mean? • Santiago speaks to himself throughout the entirety of the book. • After analyzing the thoughts and spoken words of Santiago, I have come to think that Santiago’s speaking to himself is a way of showing all humans’ desire or even need for communication or company. • Santiago gives himself orders when he is feeling weak, and he takes the orders as if they were from someone else, someone crueler and harsher than he. • He has lost some of his sanity due to loneliness, which is why he talks to himself in the first place, but it also helps him keep what remaining sanity he has by conversing with himself.

I Think I’m In Love With Joe DiMaggio • Santiago CONSTANTLY references Joe DiMaggio. He often looks at things through Joe’s perspective. • Santiago uses such phrases as “What would Joe do if he were I?” and “How would Joe handle this if he were on the skiff instead of me?”. Such phrases help keep Santiago thinking straight, however, he often over exerts himself, thinking he’s a young man again. • Joe DiMaggio symbolizes how everybody, even the physically and morally elite of us such as Santiago, yearn to idolize someone. Joe DiMaggio isn’t really much of a big deal to us – he was an average baseball player – but to Santiago, he was as close to God as he could get.

Santiago = Jesus??? Santiago’s trip and Jesus’ crucifixion share a remarkably great deal in common. This however might be the last thing on a readers mind, because Santiago begins to doubt in the existence of God during his journey (which highly resembles that of Jesus’ crucifixion, irony much?). View the following slide for comparisons.

Santiago = Christ Figure Santiago Jesus • Has a disciple (Manolin) • Town loses faith in him • Gone for 3 days • Carried a mast (a cross shape) to his house • Came back after 3 days with renewed faith from the townspeople • Has disciples • Majority of city of residence lost faith in him • Dead for 3 days • Was crucified on a cross • Resurrected after 3 days with renewed faith from the townspeople

My Critique I would not recommend this book to anybody. Ever. It was ridiculously easy to read, but it was also one of the most boring books I have ever read, however rich and full and waiting it may be to be analyzed. I have included a graph as to why I thought this book was horrible.

A Pie Chart For Your Viewing Pleasure

Who Did What • Author Information: Ben • A Farewell to Arms: Ben • The Old Man and the Sea: Henry

Ernest Hemingway