Ernest Hemingway Controversial Figure in Literature - Research Paper Example

? s Ernest Hemingway – Controversial Figure in Literature Ernest Hemingway was a well-known author born on July 21st, 1899 in Oakland, Illinois. Hemmingway has a total of 7 novels, 6 shorts stories and 2 non-fiction works written under his name. Most of his works are considered to be classics of the American literature that has successfully established his niche in the literary world as one of the most influential and complex writers. However, as much as his work was lauded by many, Hemingway was no stranger to criticism; particularly for his negative portrayal of women in his works. His works was dismissed by feminists, who believed that Hemingway’s tone was quite condescending and associated extremely foul traits with women. His hatred for women is understandable as throughout his life, he never had a stable relationship with the opposite sex that in turn led him to create some extremely controversial stories about women and the dynamics of marriage. When Hemingway was conscripted in the American army during the World War I, he fell in love with a nurse when he was admitted into a hospital after sustaining some heavy injuries on the battlefield. The said nurse’s name was Agnes and Hemingway was clearly infatuated with her. The two shared a short-lived romance and even made plans of marriage but Hemingway was left heartbroken when Agnes deemed her Italian fiance a better match for her than Hemingway. However, this was just the tip of the ice berg. Hemmingway’s misogynistic attitude roots back to his childhood and the conflict between him and his mother caused him to hold several grudges against women and these thoughts were often projected on to the male protagonists of his stories. Hemingway has said to have shown great hatred towards his mother on several occasions, who was an opera singer by profession. It is a documented fact that Hemingway referred to his mother as ‘That bitch’, he was weary of her mother’s domineering nature and despised her immensely for it. He believed that her mother not only emasculated his father, but also tried to emasculate him by not adhering to the gender roles and further inciting incestuous conflicts between his sister, Marceline and him (Jung, 2010). His childhood can be described as being quite turbulent for it was filled with her parents bickering and his mother eventually overpowering his father. He believed that his father’s masculinity was suppressed by his mother’s over-demanding nature and from then on Hemingway not only frowned upon marriage but began to believe that women were the biggest source of conflicts in a man’s life. He held them responsible for triggering identity problems in men and it can be rightly assumed that Hemingway too began questioning his identity because of his mother and sister. His tumultuous relationship with his mother was ostensible after some the letters that he exchanged with his mother became public and he openly passed derogatory remarks about her. Of course, every controversy has a story behind it and so travelling back into Hemingway’s childhood, one can easily see how the controversy was spurred into action. Back in the 19th century it was common for families to dress their males in feminine clothing. Therefore, so like every other young boy living in the late 19th century Hemingway was dressed in feminine clothes since birth. It was the set norm, but later on his mother, Grace, took it a step further and began dressing Hemingway and his sister, up in similar dresses, shoes, and even gave them the same hairstyles. She became intensely obsessive over making the two siblings look like twins. She went through great measures into keeping her fantasy alive. For example she made them sleep on the same bed; they were given the same toys, and such. Grace coupled the two up so much just so she could be happy in her fantasy world; she played with her children like dolls and often treated them heartlessly. The woman eventually cultivated sexual and gender confusion in her two children. It’s said that later on when Hemingway became a popular author, his sister, Marcelline, seemed to have developed an amorous infatuation for him (Jung, 2010). It was later discovered that Hemingway’s mother contributed in it by making them go to their school dances together and she further increased the sexual tension between the siblings. This is the reason as to why Hemingway is considered to be a victim of sexual trauma and was also known to have rejected his sister’s advances bitterly that led to a major strife in their relationship. Though, wearing feminine clothes in his childhood was supposedly normal back then but having to live through the fantasies of his mother and dismissing the advances of his sister caused him to develop unusual notions about women. Even though it’s clear that Ernest Hemingway is a sexual trauma victim it does not actually give him an excuse to portray women in his novels in such a harsh manner. He held a pre-conceived negative image of women and he generalized; this was ostensible in nearly all pieces of his writing and the characters he formed. He displaced the hate he felt for his mother on to the female characters and was often criticized by literary analysts for being very assertive in his speech and the manner in which he spoke about women. He hated his mother for igniting incestuous feelings in his sister and as a result Hemingway expressed his deep disapproval for both women, whom he blames for his awkward childhood. As a brief example, a lot of negative thought is provoked about women by one of his character by the name of Bill in his short story called “Three day blow”. Nick, his main character, hikes to Bill’s cabin where the two friends talk a little before drinking. Although the talk begins lightly about baseball and books, Bill soon moves the topic to Marjorie, Nick’s ex-fiance. From there we see how Bill depicts women. After all when Nick did get together with Marjorie it was Bill that was against the whole thing. “Once a man’s married he’s absolutely bitched,” Bill went on. “He hasn’t got anything more. Nothing. Not a damn thing. He’s done for. You’ve seen the guys that get married.” (Hemingway, 2002, p. 116) He says women ruin a man after marriage and strip him of his identity. Therefore, a man is better off not marrying them. It was Marjorie that threatened Bill’s friendship with Nick. He figured instead of getting married living life as freely, as in hunting, fishing, drink is better. The prime focus of Hemingway’s work was on male development and how it is affected as a result of interference by women. Hemingway’s bitterness towards the institution of marriage is ostensible through the aforementioned quote. A married man’s life revolves around his wife, who is demanding and if her demands are not met, a woman is capable of depriving her man of every ounce of mental peace (Azhar, 2010). Male dominance is also very clear in Hemingway’s stories. In another one of his short stories “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” his main character, Harry, goes on a safari in Africa. Due to a bearing blowing out on their truck the couple and the driver are stranded with Harry having gangrene. Harry is seems to be in more or less foul mood as he spends most of the time drinking when he shouldn’t and insulting his wife Helen. His animosity towards his wife is not triggered by any foul behavior on part of his wife, but he continues to insult her in jest that can be seen as a male pathological tendency to feel more masculine by hurling verbal abuses at their wives, while they passively listen to them. Harry’s character is quite Bipolar; he continuously switches from telling her that he loves her to calling her a rich bitch, or just a bitch in general. “….I love you, really. You know I love. I’ve never loved any one else the way I love you.” He slipped into the familiar lie he made his bread and butter by. “You’re sweet to me.” “You bitch.” He said. “You rich bitch. That’s poetry. I’m full of poetry now. Rot and poetry. Rotten poetry.” “Stop it. Harry, why do you have to turn into a devil now?” (Hemingway, 1998, p. 43) The way Harry mocks his wife shows how he feels superior to her. He speaks words of love and each time she believes them, and in return replies with words of comfort. Yet only a few moments later, Harry pushes her away with his words arguing over everything from reading to drinking alcohol. In the text it also seems that he was using his wife for financial needs. “Yes,” he said. “Your damned money was my armor. My swift and my Armor…” (Hemingway, 1998, p. 43) Almost all of Hemingway’s female characters have a shard of monotony in them and this can be further seen in “A farewell to Arms”; another extremely popular story written by Hemingway. The main characters in this novel are Catherin Barkley and Federic Henry. The two meet at British hospital, when Henry’s friend Rinaldi convinces him to go with him. Henry meets Catherine at the British hospital. He was captivated by her beauty at first sight. He soon made his move on her by trying to kiss her, though his first try was harshly rejected with a slap. However, later on she succumbs to his advances and finally they share a consensual kiss. Hemingway tries to underline male virility and a woman’s vulnerability to a man’s seduction. He portrays Catherine as having questionable morality as she is seduced by a man she hardly knows and not long after their courtship begins, the readers get to see a completely different view of Catherine’s character, as she starts acting shamelessly. She tries every little trick in the book to please Henry selflessly. As shown the woman latches onto Henry from the first couple of times when they meet drawing affection from him because she’s feeling lonely. This shows how dependent she is on Henry. Hemingway makes it look like Catherine is a weak woman who will fall apart if she does not have a man to depend on. And again let’s be reminded of the fact that Catherine is a depiction Hemingway uses to describe the general population of women. Catherine having lost her husband feels lonely and Henry wanting to get away from the battle wants to divert his attention. The two find each other possessing what the other needs and so they start bonding. Hemingway shows Catherine as a whore. Even though she knows that Henry does not love her she has this want to please him and nurture him (when he was hurt when the mortar shell exploded). She goes out of her way to adjust her schedule and location just so she can please him. Hemingway’s hatred towards women makes him depict them as naive, dependent and tools of pleasure for men. As the story continues Catherine’s obsession goes over board. All she wants to do is please the man, and when she becomes pregnant she’s afraid of telling Henry because she thinks it will only burden him. All through the novel Catherine is being portrayed as selfless, only caring for Henry’s needs. Then there are the other times where she’s portrayed as a whore. The way Hemingway portrayed Catherine “In Farewell to Arms” shows how he views women as damaged creatures with no backbones and overly emotional mindset. His portrayal of Catherine is further disturbing because Catherine begins acting like a sex slave to Henry and sets aside all her morals and values for him. There are two categories of Hemingway’s women characters and much like the character of Harry in his short story, Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway has showed a bipolar view of women. There are instances where he did create headstrong female characters, but vastly his female characters incite nothing but detest amongst the readers – thus, Hemingway’s love-hate relationship becomes a recurring theme in all his literary works. He created another memorable character of Ashley, who was based on his real life romance with a married woman, who had struck his fancy and he endowed her with pretty decent characteristics (Wagner, 1980, p. 239). However, Catherine Barkley on the other hand was as mentioned earlier was the overly sweet and submissive type, who eventually becomes unhealthily obsessed with the male protagonist, Henry. Catherine does not mind doing everything that Henry asks of her. She is passive and puts Henry’s needs before hers. Her obsession with Henry escalates to the point that she even goes on to ignore her health and the health of her unborn child. However, for all her flaws, Hemingway was kind enough to endow her character with a narrow streak of rationality, when she does realize that her obsession with Henry has reduced her to the status of a whore in her eyes. She becomes overly insecure, but despite her realization she still cannot distance herself from Henry. Catherin is clingy and delusional. She realizes that her beau is in fact lying to her about loving, but she prefers to stay in denial and continues to become emotionally dependent upon him. He further portrayed her as being naive and stupid. All in all Catherine Barkley is a character that cannot be applied on women in general, especially contemporary women, who are far more independent (Kert, 1983). It was indeed unfair on Hemingway’s part for creating a character that women would only grow to hate and there is absolutely no sense of pride in her that would make her at least likeable. His portrayal of Catherine is by far the most controversial one, which makes it extremely difficult for the readers to sympathize or even identify themselves with her. She is needy and obsessive to the point that she follows her lover around. She is unreasonably jealous that overshadows some of the more positive traits in her personality. Upon reading “Farewell to arms” many literary analysts got the impression that Hemingway implied that a woman is a mere sex slave for a man. Her needs are should always be second to that of the man and are generally inconsequential. Henry realizes Catherine’s dependence upon him, but many times he uses this fact for his personal gain. He is somewhat put off by Catherine’s neediness, which is why he eventually expresses a desire to leave Milan. As a matter of fact, all his characters bore a striking resemblance and he projected a lot of himself on to them. Hemingway’s work was met with so much criticism was because he turned the female characters in to an object of ridicule and through the exchange of dialogues in his stories, it was clear that he pretty much generalizes these traits on to every woman and did not deem them as worthy of respect. He used some pretty harsh words and indecent vocabulary that was frowned upon by many, as it glorified mocking women and was believed to be having an extremely bad influence on impressionable young readers. However, despite his misogynistic views, it did not seem to affect his sexual orientation and he was surprisingly straight. As mentioned it was a love-hate relationship on his part and though he loved women and was puzzled by them, but he was unable to sustain stable relationships with him; which seems to explain the bipolarity of his nature. This was another unresolved conflict in his mind and he resorted to ridiculing them in his text in order to cathartically release the stress that had build up as a result of the conflict (Broer, 2002). In conclusion, Hemingway may have earned the ire of all the female readers of his works because of his biased portrayal of women, but it still cannot be denied that he was a talented and a gifted writer who often penetrated to the essence of things with his sharp word. Though the generalization may be unfair, but it still provides an interesting insight into the mental workings of women and provides an alternate perspective on the matter. At the end of the day, it takes all the kinds of to make this world and Hemingway discusses the needy and obsessive side of women. In contemporary society, where feminist literature is gradually gaining momentum, Hemingway’s work actually helps and paves the path to draw a comparative female character analysis that would help unravel and shed light on the mysteries of human behavior. Hence, his controversial novel can be of great advantages in the literary sphere. Works Cited Azhar, Samina. “Depiction of Women in Hemingway’s short stories”. The IUP Journal of American Literature. 2010. Print. Broer, Lawrence R et.al. Hemingway and Women: Female Critics and the Female Voice. Alabama: University of Alabama Press. 2002. Print. Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Snows of Kilimanjaro. New York: Schuster and Simon, p. 43, 1998. Print. Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Three Day Blow. New York: Schuster and Simon, p. 116, 2012. Print. Jung, K. Elan. Sexual Trauma: A Challenge not Insanity (Ernest Hemingway). USA: The Hudson Press. 2010. Print. Kert, Bernice. The Hemingway Women. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1983. Print. Wagner, Linda. Proud and Friendly and Gentle: Women in Ernest Hemingway’s Early Fiction. Pennsylvania: College Literature, p. 239, 1980. Print. Read More