Ernest Hemingway 4 Essay Research Paper Ernest

Ernest Hemingway 4 Essay, Research Paper

Ernest Hemingway best exemplifies his hero code in his novels The Sun Also Rises and The Old Man and The Sea through his protagonists Jake Barnes and Santiago. The honor code for each of these characters means avoiding and struggling against the meaninglessness of life (nada) and instead embracing a passion for life which they demonstrate by means of their actions and feelings.

The Hemingway code embodies principles that govern the actions of Hemingway s main protagonists in his novels. They are rules which if completed would become…the manual of conduct (Waldhorn 26). As Arthur Waldhorn says the Hemingway code does not ask that a hero be fearless or entertain illusions about refuge or escape. But it insists that he discipline and control his dread and, above all, that he behave with unobtrusive though unmistakable dignity (26). The code that does concern Hemingway and his tyros is the process of learning how to make one s passive vulnerabilities (to the dangers and unpredictabilities of life) into a strong rather than weak position, and how to exact the maximum amount of reward (honor, dignity) out of these encounters (Rovit 92). In advance, a character knows what is expected of him in the game of life, although he does not know what combination of challenges will be imposed on him at any one given time (91). Hemingway s belief in the freedom of the individual to make responsible choices was paid for at the painful expense of having to constantly wage battle with the unpredictable future. Because a character does not know what will happen to him, he must endure whatever challenges are thrown upon him. This ability to react to a variety of differing challenges is only acquired through training and experience of each unique challenge (91).

Not only must Hemingway s hero face the unpredictablilities of life with honor and dignity, but he must also face the challenges alone. Each man faces his struggle alone…for only as solitary individuals can they assert their manhood (Weeks 165). Robert Weeks states that a man must depend upon himself alone in order to assert his manhood, and the assertion of his manhood, in the face of insuperable obstacles, is the complete end and justification of his existence for the Hemingway hero (164). While alone man can make promises to himself but if he fails he must be able to forgive himself for his mistakes and inadequacies (Rovit 97). If a man becomes unable to forgive himself for his past actions, he will become obsessed with them, resulting in the loss of his freedom to begin anew. His forgiveness liberates him from the past and allows him to make new promises in the future (97).

For Jake Barnes living according to the hero code meant living passionately and without illusion, and finding value in what he did with his life. According to Rovit and Gerry, Jake s most elaborate statement of his code occurs during the fiesta at Pamplona. It is also close enough to the Hemingway code … to stand as the value center of the novel (Rovit 129-130).

I thought I had paid for everything. Not like the woman pays and pays. No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave up something and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid some way for everything that was any good. I paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying living was learning to get your money s worth and knowing when you had it. You could get your money s worth. The world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine philosophy. In five years, I thought, it will seem just as silly as all the other fine philosophies I ve had.

Perhaps that wasn t all true though. Perhaps as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about. (Hemingway, Sun 137)

In book one of The Sun Also Rises, there is no great purpose to Jake Barnes life. Everyday he wanders from cafe to cafe drinking with his friends, many of whom are superficial and have no substantial goals in life. One of these friends was Lady Brett Ashley whom he was in love with. This was a futile relationship because of Jake s wound from the war. Couldn t we live together, Brett. Couldn t we just live together. (Hemingway, Sun 56). His other friend was his tennis partner, Robert Cohn, a graduate of Princeton and former boxer, whose only goal was to win Lady Brett Ashley. Despite the intentions of these two men Brett s only interest was to drink, meet new friends, and marry Mike Campbell. Even the Catholic Church failed to provide Jake with the security of religion. The Catholic Church had an awfully good way of handling all that. Good advice, anyway. Not to think about it. Oh it was swell advice. Try and take it sometime. Try and take it (35).

At the end of book one, Jake meets Count Mippipopolous whose comments about values stir a conversation between the two men and Brett. The count shares his values with both of them:

You see, Mr. Barnes, it is because I have lived very much that now I can enjoy everything so well. Don t you find it like that.

Yes. Absolutely.

I know, said the count. That is the secr