Ernest Hemingway Essay Research Paper Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway Essay, Research Paper

Ernest Hemingway s life experiences had a great impact on his works, which he depicted in his characters, exposition, and themes. Hemingway s tragic life had a profound effect on his works. Hemingway s fascination with death was from his childhood, and it grew, as he got older. (Walton 176)

Hemingway was born in 1899, in Oak park, Illinois, to Dr. Clarence Edmonds and Grace Hall Hemingway. Hemingway was second of six children. Family vacations were spent in Michigan at their cabin. Dr. Hemingway taught Hemingway and his children how to fish, hunt, and all about nature. (Walton 173) Hemingway s mother taught all her children music and creativity and took them to concerts, art galleries and operas. (Hulse 2)

His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway was the most important woman in his life when he was a child. She was not interested in domestic arts, and was also used to in getting her on way. In 1919 she undertook a project to build her own cottage, although Dr. Hemingway opposed the idea she still built the cottage. (Walton 173)

As an adolescent Hemingway was an athlete in high school and also wrote on the school newspaper. He s passion for writing was exposed in high school when he wrote short stories. Hemingway graduated high school in 1917 during WWII. (Abott 645) Academically he was good at English but uninterested in any other subjects. (Hulse 2)

From October 1917 to April 1918 Hemingway worked at the Kansa City Star. After his graduation from high school he had wished to go in the forces but his father forbade him. Hemingway had to move to accompany the job at the Star. He was to remember the leaving for a long time afterwards and wrote about it in For Whom the Bell Tolls relating the mixed emotions he felt of sadness, relief, and adulthood. (Hulse 4)

Although Hemingway enlisted in the armed forces he was rejected to due his damaged eye. In 1918 he joined The Red Cross and was sent to the Italian Corps. He was sent as ambulance driver to Italy. On July 8th 1918 Hemingway was hit by an artillery shell, and was injured in his knee and foot. (Hulse 4) About two months after his injury he was promoted as lieutenant and awarded a silver medal of valor. In December 1918 he left the ambulance service and in January 1919 he was back in America. (Hulse 5) The significance of his injury was that he learned the many ways a person can get injured on a battlefront and in peacetime. (Abott 645)

He returned to Michigan and found a job as a reporter for the co-operative commonwealth. In 1920 he married Elizabeth Hadley Richardson. (Hulse 6) He wrote a short story about Hadley titled A Very Short Story . (Walton 173) He quit the job at the commonwealth and lived off of Elizabeth s trust fund. They were saving money to go to Europe. When he went to Paris he met Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound who were to have a great influence in Hemingway s style of writing. At the time Hemingway was working on a novel he had started writing while in the US. (Hulse 6)

When in Europe Hemingway visited northern Spain, Pamplona where him and pregnant Hadley attended fiestas and bullfights. This trip and a couple of others were the basis of his novel The Sun Also Rises . Hadley and Hemingway left for Paris and after a few months went to Canada so their child could be born on American soil. (Hulse 6)

After their son was born Hemingway and Hadley moved back to Paris. During their five year marriage Hemingway wrote two novels The Sun Also Rises and The Torrent of Springs . They separated in 1926 when Hadley found out that Hemingway was having an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer, an editor. In January 1927 he was divorced from Hadley and in May 1927 he got married to Pauline. (Hulse 7)

Hemingway fell in a period of depression when he couldn t write due to his health problems. He was worried about his failing eyesight. Hemingway had wanted to write a book about his wartime experiences. Pauline and him had returned to America and stayed in Key West Florida. IN Key West Florida Hemingway s first son with Pauline was born. (Hulse 7)

In 1928 Hemingway s father killed himself. The Hemingway s were faced with mental illness of Clarence Hemingway long before his death. In 1903 to 1908 he went to a peaceful place to get a hold of his nervous condition . In 1909 he wrote a letter to Grace telling her about his life insurance policies, which was a hint to his suicidal. Hemingway blamed his mother for his father s death. Although he financially supported his mother, he rarely spoke if here and later admitted to hating her. (Walton 173)

His father s suicide may have inspired many of his writings. Five of his seven books, the male protagonist dies, and in his sixth novel the female dies. His first short story had to do with suicide. One of his manuscript read, We are the generation whose fathers shot themselves. It is a very American thing to do and it is done, usually, when they lose their money, although their wives are almost always the contributing cause. (Walton 176)

Hemingway never condoned with his father s death. According to Freud the death of a father is the most important thing in a person s life, something that Hemingway also believed. He considered writing a novel on his father s death but he never did. His novel For whom the Bell Tolls was similar to his story. Many of