Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway The Wasteland and Beyond 1899-1961

Hemingway’s Life and Death • Married four times, divorced three • Accomplished big game hunter, fisherman, also tried race-car driving, bullfighting, boxing, etc. • Loved and hated the trappings of wealth and celebrity—detracted from his writing. He was cruel to his wives and others who helped him financially • Suffered from fits of depression, as did his father • Committed suicide, as did his father, one of his sons, and one of his granddaughters

Hemingway’s Life • Ambulance driver in World War I Italy—severely wounded • Worked as a newspaper reporter in the U.S. • Expatriate writer in Paris beginning in the 1920’s • Told by Gertrude Stein (another American expat)—”You are, all of you, a Lost Generation.” • Used his experiences as the bases for writing novels, short stories, and non-fiction pieces

Hemingway Style • A new type of writing "in which meaning is established through dialogue, through action, and silences—a fiction in which nothing crucial—or at least very little—is stated explicitly.“ • Hemingway called his style the iceberg theory: the facts float above water; the supporting structure and symbolism operate out of sight

Hemingway Style 2 • Revitalized fiction writing • Stock characters in his work have become standard characters in American fiction and pop culture • Terse, realistic dialogue

Rebellion Against Old Style • Hemingway’s style was a rebellion against the formality and complexity of the nineteenth century writers • Was well known for the quickness and action of his writing as opposed to the formality of writers such as Dickens or Henry James • Often used alternating narration—in third person—between characters. It was an innovation.

Hemingway’s Work • Several novels, including The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea, etc. • Dozens of short stories • Newspaper work and non-fiction articles and books • Deeply influential writer on the current and next generations

Heroes and Nonheroes The Hero The “Coward” Francis Macomber—who may become a hero by the end of the story • Robert Wilson • Jake Barnes • Nick Adams • His heroes demonstrate “grace under pressure.”

Hemingway’s Women • The dark woman—Brett Ashley of The Sun Also Rises—is a goddess; the light woman—Margot Macomber of “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber”—is decidedly not • In early Hemingway, men find redemption in a world without women (the fishing trip in “Big, Two-Hearted River”)

The Wasteland

The forest in “Big, Two-Hearted River”The Valley of Ashes in The Great GatsbyThe concept of a world ruined by mankind’s destructive impulses mirrors what happened in the Fisher King myth.First major example was in T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Wasteland

The Wasteland and Hemingway • Hemingway saw combat in Italy and saw the destruction. • He equated the damage of the war with its damage to his characters—they are all wounded in some way, but the wounds eventually heal and they find redemption. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are stronger at the broken places.”

The Mythic(al) Method is a way to structure a poem or work of prose fiction. The author uses an already well-known myth or legend as the basis for his plot and then adds to or adapts it as necessary.Think “Journey of the Magi.”

The Mythic(al) MethodThe Mythical Method is “a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history.... Instead of narrative method, we may now use the mythical method. It is, I seriously believe, a step toward making the modern world possible for art.“T. S. EliotThe Dial 1923

The Fisher King Myth • Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin, and incapable of moving on his own. • When he is injured, his kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland • Little is left for him to do but fish in the river near his castle • He is cured (redeemed) by drinking from the Holy Grail

Ernest Hemingway