Thread that binds the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway - Research Paper Example

?Thread that binds the short stories of Ernest Hemingway Literature is a reflection of real life experiences. across the globe sometimes admit and sometimes deny the line. However there are some writers, in whose literature the connection with the real life is very clearly seen. However what makes these experiences different is the fiction in which they are converted to, making them general and specific both at the same time. For writers like Ernest Hemingway, what they see beyond these experiences and their strength and ability to convey it to the reader sets them apart. In this essay we are going to analyse three short stories written by Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway. Language is often said to be means of communication. Human life presents several instances and circumstances which cannot be described in words alone. Writing about these instances for a common individual would probably be a very mundane experience however when is penned down by a prolific writer like Hemingway the experience goes beyond mortality. There are external as well as internal conflicts that create turmoil in a person’s life. Impact of the same is visibly seen in some instances while in some other they affect in a much deeper sense. So while we go on the tell-tale signs that are visible we do not sign the much deeper ingrained impressions that may cause a person to behave in a particular way. Ernest Hemingway served in both World Wars in some and the other capacity. Winning medals for his bravery and courage in both wars, his sensitivity also absorbed the war, the mortality and utter hopelessness of human life and values and why peace comes at such a grave cost. Understandably almost of all his work are based on the war as a background. His personal experiences take form of short stories, novels and even semi-autobiographical characters like Nick. Hemingway was in love with in an Italian nurse who nursed him back to life during World War one when he was severely injured. She was 7 years older to him and after the war they decided to leave for America, get married and get settled there, however she insisted that he should go ahead first and she will follow, which she never did. She eventually married an Italian army senior and informed Hemingway accordingly. Deeply hurt and betrayed Hemingway could never really get over this all his life. His relationships in his four marriages always had a background of this and he kept abandoning one wife after other all his life. He never called himself to be a part of ‘Lost Generation’ which was referred to young people who matured suddenly during and after the war and felt lost when they saw the era they were so comfortable with simply crumble in front of their eyes. War affects humans and generations in different ways. The generation which allows their sons and daughters to participate in the war, never reconcile with the loss of their beloved children. Those who actually participate in the war are affected by so naked vision of death and shallowness of life. The next generation sees the effects of the war on their life through deteriorating economic conditions and no values to believe in because their parents have lost faith in the values they cherished for lives. In case of Hemingway’s literature we see these effects very clearly on people. He insisted in active participation in both wars, spent time in Europe in between wars where he developed his writing style. He was tutored or mentored by literary greats of the time who realised his potential and with whom he had great deal of long friendships, some of them that spanned over his life. He kept moving from one place to another, writing his books and eventually spent longer time in Cuba. He visited African continent more than once and during one of his visits suffered from multiple injuries in a plane crash, from which he never really recovered. His fourth wife Mary was with him when he was recuperating in Cuba. It is said that Hemingway even went through psychological treatments and that too extreme ones to help him cure his chronic depressions. He finally shot himself with his favourite shotgun in the basement of his house, which was not really told to general public for a considerable period of time. Years later his wife talked and confirmed about his suicide to people. A profound writer that he was, his sensitivity is seen through his work. He was not known for using words extravagantly but rather frugally. The beauty of his writing is however in his direct writing style with exact number of perfect words. Very few writers are so expressive even when they are not descriptive. One must attribute this trait to his journalism career. Journalists always face the crunch of word limit and they have to write and express within that limitation. This leads to appropriate and perfect picking of words, and yet convey the meaning powerfully to the reader. Hemingway was a journalist who turned to creative writing later. This trait he is likely to have carried from his journalist days. However for a reader, short sentences, short paragraphs, perfect descriptive words are impacting and yet holding his attention. We are going to analyse ‘A very short story’, ‘A clean well-lighted place’, and ‘The end of something’. On the surface these three stories depict a very everyday common occurrence that can happen in anyone’s life. Beneath the surface however one sees the conflicts and situations that have deeply affected these individuals. Along with happiness, love, hope and faith we also have despair, hopelessness of life, loss of vanity and values in life. In all three stories we see that there are some or the other human values and factors which are either present or lost. The three stories mentioned have a common thread of larger experiences of life dominating smaller ones, which we are going to analyse. Some would be external while some would be internal. The decisions that stem out of these conflicts are not easy ones for the decision maker but the sheer loss of faith in goodness of life at some point or the other coerces a person to concede to fate and a force that is beyond him that is his own life. All the stories are bound by this common thread and in the essay that follows we are going to analyse and understand from this perspective. A very short story As the title suggests this indeed is a very short story that happens at the backdrop of World War one. The protagonist ‘He’ is probably a front line soldier who gets severely injured during a skirmish. He is admitted in the hospital where he is being prepared by Luz, the nurse on duty. She nurses him back to health and they eventually fall in love. She voluntarily opts for night duty for three months so that she can be close to him. As he recovers his health he takes temperatures in the night time so that she can spend some more time with him in bed. Everybody around understands and cooperates. They visit a church and want to get married right away. However they don’t have time and neither the required documentation available. So they decide to wait till the war ends. He joins the action again and she writes to him. He receives all of her correspondence at the same time and he is taken by the letters which are full of passion and love for him. Finally the war ends and they meet. He decides that they should both go to America and start a new life. She insists that he should go ahead and find a job, she will join him later and they ‘might’ eventually get married. They quarrel on the issue and he feels upset about parting on a quarrelled note. He reaches America while she stays back to start a hospital. Later she meets an Italian major who is stationed in her city and makes love to her. She writes to him in America stating that the live they felt for each other was immature and she would like to marry in the coming spring. She tells him to remember the good times they have spent together and forget her altogether. The major doesn’t marry her and she doesn’t receive any reply from Chicago as well. He meanwhile contracts a sexually transmitted disease from a loose insignificant affair. A clean well-lighted place In the story there are three main characters. The story takes place in a cafe which is clean, well lit and peaceful. There is an old man from the local place who visits the cafe every day. He is deaf. He is sits there because he feels the calm of the night although he is lost in the world inside him. He sees the shadows of the leaves on the trees. There are two waiters in the cafe. One is old and the other one is young. The story proceeds through the conversation of these two waiters. The old man is a regular patron of the cafe. We come to know from the conversation of the waiters that he is wealthy, very old and lonely. He is clean and dignified. Only in the previous week he has tried to commit suicide and was saved by his niece who is the only one who stays with him to take care of him. The younger waiter is anxious that the old man finishes his drink and leaves, so that he can go back to his family and life. The older waiter however identifies with the old man and tries to reason with the younger waiter. However the younger waiter is unsympathetic and even crude. He actually goes to the old man and asks him why he didn’t go ahead with the suicide, only because he knows that the old man is deaf. Eventually the younger waiter forces the old man to stop drinking, pay the bill and leave. The older waiter is sad to shut down the cafe. The younger waiter presents an argument that there are bodegas and bars open everywhere else and the old man can go and entertain himself there. The older waiter disagrees but shuts down the cafe and leaves. The older waiter goes to one such place and orders for a coffee. He is insomniac and he realises that life is full of nothingness to go back to. The end of something The end of something takes place in Horton Bay. The town has prospered with the growing business of saw mill. Over the years the mill becomes the symbol of growth and development and finally shuts down. Nothing remains of the mill except the bare stones which form the foundation of the building of the mill. Nick and Marjorie, who are in love come there for fishing and to spend some time together. The love they feel for each other is from their younger days. However the charm of the love is soon waning off on Nick. They spend time together but he hardly converses with her. Marjorie tries to draw him into small talks. He tries to give her hints through various one liners, but she is busy trying to do the activity in hand and save the relationship with him. She doesn’t take the clues. They silently have picnic food together. Nick finally summons up the courage ant tells her directly that the relationship doesn’t keep his interests anymore. He is not finding the charm he felt in it and would want to let it go. She gets up and rows away from him all alone. Bill, Nick’s friend comes along and asks Nick where Marjorie has gone. Nick manages to answer but eventually tells Bill to go away. Bill instead picks up a sandwich and goes to examine the fishing rods. After reading the plots of all the three stories we realise that these are absolutely everyday events that can happen in anybody’s life. Breaking of relationships, an old man patronising a cafe for a drink every day etc. are not exactly very extraordinary events. Then what makes a reader turn the pages and still read these short stories. Let us understand the elements that actually come to the surface through the simple and short narrations of these stories. There is a common element of despair in all the three stories which is clearly visible. The reader cannot reject the feeling of gloom and unhappiness that is felt while reading all the three stories. War is an external conflict that hardens a person or takes a toll on his sensitivity altogether. When survival is the only issue the vanity of all other things in life is lost. In the first story he is a frontline solider who sees death everywhere around him and is aware that it can pounce on him any moment. He creates hope by creating a relationship, to go back to something and to cling on. The wartime also expedites the urgency of the relationships and the society also opens in terms of acceptability. Hence in the opening line of the story everybody else leaves them on the terrace and goes downstairs. Patients in his ward don’t mind him taking their temperature rather than Luz because they understand and appreciate the relationship. However come peace time and both have moved on. She definitely is the first one to admit the immaturity of the affair but the reader can sense him being aware of the same as well. The reader can feel the inevitability of the break up even if the relation would have continued. The despair is in the story even if it describes happy times such as her voluntarily taking up night duty to be with him or in the sad times when the major does not marry her nor she receives any reply from Chicago. Hemingway uses the metaphor of a clean well-lighted cafe as against the darkness and despair a person feels inside him very effectively in the second story. The old waiter identifies with the old man and tries to reason with the young waiter. He understands that the old man has got nothing to go back to only a dark loneliness which is chaotic. He senses the loss of direction of life in the nothingness he himself feels. He understands why the old man would have tried to commit suicide. Death seems to be the only certainty in the void he feels within himself. The fact that old man is deaf is also a very touching reality. For his age, when he has been there and done that, he is naturally deaf to the external world. He doesn’t relate to the new changed world around him. The new world has created a conflict for him inside. The old waiter perfectly understands this and this is what he means when he says “You have youth, confidence, and a job” to the young waiter. The frivolity of youth and life is seen through young waiter who doesn’t realise that he is going to be old someday. He doesn’t want to be old; he doesn’t want to be like the old man. In a way he clings to the false vanity of time being on his side, he being young and he having someone who is waiting for him at home. The old waiter expects cleanness because he expects order in things around him. He realises that probably there are so many more around who would want to come to a cafe like his and spend some time rather than going to a crowded place and get lost in internal as well as external chaos. The despair of old age affects him and he knows it has affected the old patron as well. When the confidence of young age is no more there, and the familiarity of the world around is lost, then one would want to come to a place which offers clarity and light. Only then the pain of nothingness loses its sharp edge and the void within is not abysmal deep. In the third story the mill represents the relationship between Nick and Marjorie. It started way long ago. It flourished over a period of time and today it is standing deserted and shattered. Reader can make out that Nick and Marjorie have had their relationship for years and they really enjoy each other’s company a lot. Come today and the mill is no longer there. The stones of the foundation are visible. Similarly Nick is trying to go back to what is the foundation of their relationship or what formed the basis of his relation with her. When he is not able to find the answer he feels lost and loses assurance. Marjorie however accepts the change and still sees the hope of keeping the relation alive. Her efforts are not responded positively. Nick is trying to tell her that the fish is not picking the bait or he is not interested in small talks. The scene created here is very similar in grounds with the first story. In both the stories relationships start with hopes and promises only to realise the frivolity of life later. With the passage of time both the couples realise they have to move on and in both the stories the girls are the first one to take a clue and let go. The only difference is in the way the male protagonists react in both stories. In the first story we only come to know that he has moved on too when he read about him contracting a disease from a loose, trivial relationship and Nick lying with his head on the blanket and trying to figure out if whatever he has done is right or wrong. Nick is confused and hurt by his own actions and despair Hemingway’s short and simple sentences complemented his existentialist style. In all the three stories despair and gloom over loss is the common theme which exists either potentially or on the surface in all of us. Similarly we can see the conflict of external world creating an internal conflict for the people in all the three stories. In case of Nick who is often considered as an autobiographical portrayal of Hemingway himself explains why he kept marrying and divorcing wives in his life. The restlessness Nick feels to come out of the ties of a relationship because he feels the necessity to move on is representing Hemingway’s own life. The effective use of metaphors and symbols such as letters, cafe, and the abandoned mill add visual effect to the stories. The mill which brought prosperity to the town is similar to the earlier relation years with Marjorie which brought emotional prosperity to Nick, which he must be grateful to and move on, which is what exactly he does. The most profound stories are told in the simplest way, or don’t we see the deep meaning of life through simple instance in our lives? Is it that we deliberately ignore the despair in life as seen in all the three stories? Hemingway tells us the meaning of life through three simple narrations and stories only to enrich us further. References: 1. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954 - Ernest Hemingway, http://www.nobelprize.org 2. Ernest (Miller) Hemingway (1899-1961) - http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi 3. Existentialism's Effects on Writing Styles - http://howlandpowpak.neomin.org 4. Literary Existentialism - Existentialist Thought in Literature and Art - http://atheism.about.com 5. Justification and Existentialism - http://www.dawndreamer.modern-thinker.co.uk 6. The end of something - http://tabootenente.tblog.com 7. A Clean, Well-lighted Place - http://www.mrbauld.com 8. A very short story - http://records.viu.ca 9. The qualities of imagery, dialogue and narrative style in Hemingway's “Hills Like White Elephants” - http://www.jeremychapman.info 10. Reading the Writer’s Craft: The Hemingway Short Stories - Lisa Garrigues, http://faculty.buffalostate.edu 11. Elements of narrative discourse in selected short stories of Ernest Hemingway - Gueorgui V. Manolov http://scholarcommons.usf.edu 12. Writing Style of Papa Hemingway - http://noputhyfooting.wordpress.com 13. NBCC Featured Review: Steve Paul on Ernest Hemingway - Eric banks, http://bookcritics.org 14. Can we ever really know Ernest Hemingway?” - Kevin Canfield, http://www.salon.com Read More