Unhappy Relationships in Hemingway's Life and Fiction - Book Report/Review Example

 Unhappy Relationships in Hemingway's Life and Fiction Ernest Hemingway emerged as one of America’s more colorful writers in the early to mid-1900s, presenting himself as the ultimate man’s man, worldly traveler, mighty hunter and hard-drinking spinner of tales. Within a short span of time, 1925-1929, he had established himself as having produced some of the most important literary fiction in his century. His short stories focused on the virtues held by men a generation or two earlier than him as well as the effects and aftereffects of war. Yet each story contained a deeper message within the lines, if the reader felt the desire to go searching for it. He believed in omitting extra details as a way of strengthening his stories. He compared this to an iceberg. Just like only the top 1/8th of an iceberg can be seen above the water with the rest remaining below the surface providing it with its momentum and dignity, Hemingway believed his stories should follow the same structure. Although some critics loved him, others said his stories were shallow. “He had no sympathy for women, they said, portraying them either as manhood-destroying bitches or as mere objects of sexual domination” (Lynn, 1987, p. 10). A close reading of his stories reveals not only the messages the author intended to send, but also some insights as to the way he felt about things. Throughout his life, Hemingway struggled in his relationships with others, particularly women, and these struggles can be traced through many of his works including “Hills Like White Elephants”, “The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “Snows of Kilimajaro.” There are numerous similarities between the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” and Hemingway’s life at the time he wrote it. According to Baker (1969), Hemingway wrote this story during the 100 day separation period between himself and his mistress Pauline that his wife Hadley insisted upon before granted a divorce. The story is essentially the conversation that takes place between a man and a woman at a small train station café as they wait for their next train. One of the first indications that perhaps things are not right with the couple is the fact that they are drinking beers in the middle of the day. While this is not necessarily an indication of trouble, the emphasis on ‘big ones’ and the observation of the girl “looking off at the line of hills” observing that “they look like white elephants” (Hemingway, 1986: 273) begins to suggest the general direction of the story about to unfold. As the man and woman talk, it becomes clear that she is pregnant and that he wants her to have an abortion. It is equally clear that she’s not sure she wants an abortion. This is made obvious in the imagery, as one side of the train station is depicted barren and dry and the other is seen full of fields of grains and trees, as well as in the characters’ individual responses. The man blames the couple’s unhappiness on the baby, “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy” (Hemingway, 1986: 275). She continues to seek reassurance that he will still care for her when everything is over, “But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?” (Hemingway, 1986: 175). Traditionally, the concept of the white elephant is used to indicate something that is no longer of value to the owner, although it might have value elsewhere (Martin, 1996) and the girl’s continued reference to the hills’ similarity to the beast indicates she is already aware of where the relationship is headed. The insistence of the man that everything would be just like it was before the baby suggests his own delusion regarding their problems and mirrors the problems Hemingway had with women in his real life (Allen, 2000: 3). In “The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, Hemingway reveals his latent fear of strong women and being dominated as he depicts the story of a middle-aged man who is finally beginning to understand his true worth and his wife, a woman who has nothing but contempt for her weak and cowardly husband. Written during his marriage to Pauline, whom he had been separated from when writing “Hills Like White Elephants”, the marriage was nonetheless beginning to show signs of wear. According to Allen (2000), this marriage was only approximately two years from breaking up, the final straw occurring when Hemingway took a female reporter from Key West with him to a correspondent’s job in the Spanish Civil War. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that during this, the couple’s first safari, Francis fled from the sight of his first lion. There is an interesting parallel in Hemingway’s life in that he and Pauline went on their first safari in 1933 (Allen, 2000: 3). The couple’s relationship is also characterized in a strongly similar fashion to Hemingway’s relationship with Pauline, “They had a sound basis of union. Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce her and Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him” (22). Margot Macomber is characterized throughout the story as a cruel, vindictive woman who will simply not allow her husband to forget his weaknesses and yet fears his increasing confidence. As he stands down the charge of his second water buffalo, taking careful aim at the buffalo’s head, Francis “felt a sudden white-hot, blinding flash explode inside his head and that was all he ever felt” (36). This murder from behind is Hemingway’s fear if he ever allows a woman to gain control over him while Wilson’s reaction, instantly recognizing both the fact that Margot killed Francis on purpose and why she did, refusing to let up until she begs ‘please’ demonstrates his conception of a ‘true’ man. “The male does not crawl to the female … A return to the ‘natural’ roles and rhythms of the male-female relationship is a way of asserting the worth of the individual in all human relationships” (Shaw, 1982: 46). This sense of the killing influence of a wealthy wife on the sensibilities of a writer husband is also the subject of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” The story is much more introspective than most of Hemingway’s stories as the principle character has little choice but to lie still on his cot as he slowly dies of gangrene from an untreated wound on his leg. Harry knows the rescue plane won’t arrive on time to save him and spends his remaining time reflecting on his life and berating his wife for always having stood in his way off accomplishing his goals. “He notes that whenever he fell in love, the woman had more money than the last woman had. He liked the comfort of not having to write. Finally, he did not work at all. He destroyed his talent by not using it, by drink, by sheer laziness” (Shaw, 1982: 85). In many ways, this statement could be as easily applied to Hemingway himself with the single exception that his life was frequently characterized by a dedication to his writing. Through Harry’s flashbacks, a great deal of Hemingway’s personality is revealed. His fear of being alone is revealed by the sick feeling Harry feels in Paris, which can be seen as a parallel to Hemingway’s enforced 100 days alone and separated from his mistress as a means of gaining a divorce from his wife. His concern about maintaining his ‘masculine’ persona in a changing world is revealed as Harry recalls the Turks in their “white ballet skirts and upturned shoes with pompons on them” compared to the violence they inflicted that was so horrible “he could not talk about it or stand to have it mentioned” (Hemingway, 1986: 65-66) as the American poet “with a stupid look on his potato face” talks about the Dada movement. Finally, Hemingway’s suspicion that there may be absolutely no meaning to life is revealed in Harry’s recollection of the frozen dead boy he saw once, half of who’s body had already been gnawed away by the dogs and the dead soldier he saw another time who had become so entangled in a barbed wire fence before he died that he intestines had fallen to the other side of it. By tracing through Hemingway’s life in conjunction with his stories such as “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, “The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “Hills Like White Elephants”, one can begin to trace the cyclical pattern that characterized Hemingway’s life and thinking. This is an idea that is pretty well summed up within “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” itself, seemingly itself tracing its way through the stories. While most of Hemingway’s work can thus be seen to contain a great deal of biography within them, it is important not to miss the applicability of these stories to the universal human experience in the Western world of the early 1900s. Issues of alcohol as an escape mechanism, relationships based on convenience rather than love and a changing society in which men were expected to be more feminine and women were becoming more masculine threaten each of the characters in the three stories discussed above just as they were increasing concerns in the greater social realm. Placed in slightly different terms, the use of substance abuse as a means of escape, relationships based upon mutual benefit rather than sentiment and continuously changing social and gender roles around the world continue to be significant issues in today’s world. Works Cited Allen, Jamie. “Hemingway Biography: From Illinois to International Celebrity.” CNN Specials. 1999. Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” The Short Stories. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986: 273-278. Hemingway, Ernest. “The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” The Short Stories. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986: 3-37. Hemingway, Ernest. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” The Short Stories. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986: 52-77. Lynn, Kenneth S. Hemingway. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1987. Martin, Gary. “A White Elephant.” The Phrase Finder. 1996. November 12, 2007 Shaw, Samuel. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1982. Read More