o go to college, but Ernest became a reporter instead, and he also became interested in the war raging in Europe (World War I) and decided to go there to see it for himself. All this was part of his attitude toward masculinity in men, which he prized highly (Hardy and Cull 14-15). Many of Hemingway's emotional stresses derived from his relationship with his parents. His mother and father were almost entirely super-ego oriented and inculcated their children with the restraints of society and social order. This did not "take" with Ernest, whose orientation was diametrically opposed to his parents (Hardy and Cull 23). Hemingway also established a lifestyle of escapism, tending to run whenever problems or people started to move in on him. He took a number of routes to avoid having to stand and fight--Michigan, World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, writing, safaris, Key West, and his marriages and divorces--yet this was somehow different from always-ready-to-fight image that he projected in his works and in his attitudes. He also had a certain problem with age, and as a younger man he would add a couple of years to his age when referring to himself (Hardy and Cull 41).
Hemingway was a man who made great efforts at self-determination, and when he found a concept that had meaning for him, he would grasp it too tightly, often distorting its meaning. He also experienced conflict in his search for the meaning of life. He relied on religious faith to pull him through when he was seriously wounded in the Spanish Civil War, and he carried over certain beliefs about moral standards from his early training which gave rise to conflict and despair because of his tendency to maneuver and manipulate in a goal-oriented manner. Hardy and Cull state that Hemingway had more opportunities for self-actualization than most people and that he would take on the responsibility for evaluating his own progress toward becoming an optimal per...