Ernest Hemingway (1889-1961)
Performer - Culture & Literature
Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2013
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
1. Life
• Born in Oak Park, Illinois (near
Chicago), in 1899.
• His father was a successful
physician and his mother
a music teacher.
• He loved tough games:
boxing, hunting, deep-sea
fishing, bullfighting.
Ernest Hemingway hunting.
• He chose to be a reporter for the
Kansas City Star.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
1. Life
• He became a volunteer ambulance
driver during World War I, in 1918.
• He was celebrated as a war
hero upon his return home.
• He worked as a reporter for
the Toronto Star in 1920.
• He spent some time in Key
West, Florida, Spain, and
Africa after 1927.
• His father committed
suicide in 1929.
Performer - Culture & Literature
Ernest Hemingway.
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
1. Life
• He was a war correspondent from 1936-1939
during the Spanish Civil War.
• He fought in World War II.
• After the war, he lived in Havana, Cuba, and
in 1958 moved to Idaho.
Ernest Hemingway and the American writer Janet Flanner, both
in uniform, seated reading papers at a table in the Deux Magots
café in Paris (France, 1940-1945).
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
1. Life
• In 1961 he shot and killed himself in his home.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
2. Main works
He wrote forty-nine short stories and published some bestselling novels, like:
The Sun Also Rises
(1926)
the life of a generation after WWI
A Farewell to Arms
(1929)
a tragic story about love and war during
WWI
For Whom the Bell
Tolls (1940)
love and war against the realistic
background of the Spanish Civil War
The Old Man and
the Sea (1952)
a story of one man’s courage for which he
won the Pulitzer Prize 1953
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
3. Style
• His style, influenced by Ezra Pound
and Gertrude Stein, is  direct,
clear, and essential, suited to his
elemental subject matter.
Gertrude Stein.
• His syntax  is simple made up of
short sentences and paragraphs.
• The background information and
dialogue introductory phrases, such as
‘he said’ or ‘she said’, are  omitted.
Ezra Pound
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
3. Style
He employed the iceberg principle to his stories
The meaning of the text is not limited to moving the plot
forward: there is always a web of association and
inference, a hidden reason behind the inclusion /
omission of every detail.
Hemingway’s characters are revealed through 
dialogue and descriptive passages; short analysis of
personal feelings and sensations is given.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
4. Hemingway’s hero
According to Hemingway a real man is defined by
• his willingness to face defeat or victory;
• his pride in the knowledge that one has done one's best,
with the courage to act in true accordance with one's own
nature;
• his endurance in accepting pain, or even loss.
• His hero
is noble but tragic; though he knows
that he will be defeated, he decides to act like a hero.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
4. Hemingway’s hero
Hemingway depicted two types of hero:
Men and women,
deprived by World
War I of faith in any
moral values. They
live with cynical
disregard for
anything.
Performer - Culture & Literature
Men who live
dangerously, like
fishermen, athletes
or bullfighters. They
face the difficulty of
their daily existence
with courage.
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
5. Hemingway’s themes
Hemingway’s most recurring themes are:
Man's impotence and his despairing
courage to assert himself against
overwhelming odds.
Taking care of oneself by being tough against
fate and tough with grace under pressure.
The individual's ‘moment of truth’, and his
fascination with the threat of physical
emotional, or psychic death.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
6. The Old Man and the Sea
MAIN CHARACTERS
• Santiago  The hero of the story.
He is an old Cuban fisherman who
is determined to catch one big fish.
•
Marlin  The big fish that Santiago
desperately wants and needs to catch.
• The Sea  It is a central character
and Santiago is constantly identified
with it and its creatures.
Spencer Tracy as Santiago in ‘The
Old Man and the Sea’ (1958).
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
6. The Old Man and the Sea
MAJOR THEMES
• Unity  a connection between
the fisherman, Santiago and nature.
• Heroism  the triumph over crushing
adversity is the heart of heroism.
• Manhood  Santiago shows us
not only how to live heroically but
in a way befitting a man.
• Worthiness  Santiago is
obsessed with proving his
worthiness to those around him.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
7. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
One of Hemingway’s most famous short
stories
Themes
• loneliness
• isolation
• the futility of modern society
a reflection of the existential crisis
following World War I
Ernest Hemingway at home.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
8. A Farewell to Arms
The protagonists are:
• an American ambulance driver,
Lieutenant Frederic Henry,
on the Italian front during World War I
• a nurse, Catherine, met by Henry
at a Milan hospital.
MAIN EVENTS
• Henry falls in love with Catherine.
• The two escape to Switzerland.
• There she dies giving birth to their child, who also dies.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
8. A Farewell to Arms
MAIN THEMES
• The evolution of Henry  Catherine inspires love and
teaches him how to love leading him to becoming a more
honest and genuine character.
• Love  Catherine teaches Henry to love and to give it
importance above other pursuits/obligations.
• War and anti-war  Idealism
linked to war and traditional
values of courage, honour,
bravery are disregarded or
rejected.
From the 1957 film starring Rock
Hudson and Jennifer Jones.
Performer - Culture & Literature
E. Hemingway
Jonathan
Swift
8. A Farewell to Arms
MAIN THEMES
• War as a destructive force
The men fighting as
much against the weather and environment as against the
enemy.
• Masculinity linked to loyalty
and strength.
• Existentialism
Frederic
Henry is an existentialist, he
believes in personal responsibility
 takes action  struggles
with life and the nature
of existence  rejects
a ‘fatalistic’ view of life.
Performer - Culture & Literature