Hemingway

The Italian word Sprezzatura translates to "grace under pressure." Above all elements of the heroic Greek character and the heroic Hemingway character, this element must be the defining one. If one wishes to compared the elements of Greek tragedy that are sewn throughout Hemingway fiction like sinews through beef, a good method of doing so is to compare the Greek tragedy heroic ideal (Odysseus, Achilles, etc.) with the Hemingway tragedy heroic ideal (Manuel Garcia, Santiago, etc.). There are two realms or worldview paradigms in which the Greek hero and the Hemingway hero must prove their heroism. In the Greek worldview the hero celebrates the tragedy of existence, an existence in which we are born to suffer and die. In the Hemingway worldview, we get no better portrait of the realm in which the hero must endure than the somber portrait of the universe in Hemingway's short story, A Clean Well-Lighted Place.

It is in these two worldviews where we see the most profound difference between the tragic Greek hero and the tragic Hemingway hero. The Greek hero accepts with a certain joi de vrie the nada (or nothingness) of human existence. One which, though it may only entail birth, suffering and death, is to be lived as death is not viewed as some rosy hereafter by the Greeks. This is why, when Odysseus tours Hades he says he would rather be a rented field hand (the lowest form of Greek personage) than to be a master in Hades,

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ve of Catherine, even though he holds off going in this direction because he doubts it will bring him the happiness and meaning for which he searches. Dialogue between Frederic and Catherine shows the terse style of the author as well as the attempt by the hero to become one with the loved object in an attempt to find meaning. We see this in the following exchange where Frederic and Catherine share some intimacies: I had gonorrhea� I wished I'd had it. No you don't. I do. I wish I had it to be like you. I wish I'd stayed with all your girls so I could make fun of them for you. That's a pretty picture. It's not a pretty picture you having gonorrhea. � I wouldn't let you cut yours [hair]. It would be fun. I'm tired of it. It's an awful nuisance in the bed at night� It might be nice short. Then we'd both be alike. Oh, darling, I want you so much I want to be you too. You are. We're the same one. (Hemingway 223) Saying they are the same one is indicative that Frederic understands all human beings are the same in that they must face the reality of nada. How they do it is what matters. Frederic will be faced with his strongest test of achieving this with courage when Cat dies in childbirth. When Catherine die

Category: Literature - H