Relation Between Hemingway's Life & Fiction
This is an excerpt from the paper...
There are numerous similarities to be found in comparing the life of Ernest Hemingway with his fiction. In particular, there are similarities between Hemingway's own life and the lives of the characters in his books. Hemingway's early fiction was strongly influenced by his experiences both during and immediately after the First World War. For example, the characters Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises and Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms are both based on Hemingway's life during that period. Like Hemingway, Jake Barnes was injured during the war and is critical of the lifestyles of post-war Europe. Also like Hemingway, Frederic Henry has a love affair with a nurse while recuperating from his war wounds in a Red Cross hospital. Hemingway's fiction was also influenced by his early experiences as a journalist. This influence can be seen in the unique writing style that Hemingway developed for himself. In addition, it can be seen in the fact that he made his first fictional hero, Jake Barnes, be a journalist. In addition to reflecting his own life in his fiction, Hemingway also related his observations of family and friends. He often did this in a very critical way and thus made many enemies among those who did not appreciate his depiction of them. According to Lynn, Hemingway "would become known for his habit of beguiling friends and acquaintances into believing that he was well disposed toward them, at the very moment that he was pillorying their habits into ficti
. . .
e decadent lifestyle of these people, with their heavy drinking, promiscuity, and fighting amongst one another. Various characters in the novel are directly based on people that Hemingway met during his Paris years. However, he also fictionalized those characters so that they were different in various ways from the real people that he had known. For example, the character of Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises is actually a composite of several women that Hemingway knew during that time (Lynn 324).
It is commonly regarded that Hemingway's characterization of Jake Barnes "is a portrait of himself" (Lynn 324). Like Hemingway in his early career, Jake Barnes is a journalist. In addition, like Hemingway, Jake suffers from a wound which he received during the war. However, unlike Hemingway, Jake experiences a groin injury which leaves him impotent. Therefore, this is another example of how Hemingway fictionalized the real people in his life in order to turn them into vivid characters for his novels. Although the character Jake is based on Hemingway, Jake's specific war injury is based on the injuries of other men that Hemingway met while he was recuperating in the Red Cross hospital. In creating Jake Barnes, Hemingway did not
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Nelson Jones, Hills Africa, Ezra Pound, Farewell Arms, Dr Adams, Lost Generation, Lynn Hemingway, Civil War, Frederic Henry, Hemingway Jake, farewell arms, based hemingway's, sun rises, hemingway ernest, jake barnes, frederic henry, hemingway's fiction, nelson jones, short stories, war hemingway, arms based hemingway's, farewell arms based, spanish civil war, red cross hospital, doctor doctor's wife,
Approximate Word count = 2345
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Relation Between Hemingway Life & Fiction
|