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Jakob Nordstrom
Farrar
ENC 1102
23, February 2012
Hemingway and Frost; Depression and Isolation in Modern Literature
During the early- to mid-1900s, when Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost lived,
psychologists were only beginning understand the mental condition depression, and depressed
people often found them-selves socially stigmatized. During the early nineteenth century
depressed people faced “[a] major obstacle [in] the stigma that exists in the minds of many
people” that labeled these persons weak-willed or insipid (Potash). When speaking through his
character Nick Adams in “A way you’ll never be,” Hemingway states that “once they’ve had you
certified as nutty no one ever has any confidence in you again” (qtd. in Reynolds). Both
Hemingway and Frost suffered under MDD or Major Depressive Disorder; commonly called
depression and the themes and characters that Hemingway and Frost employ show that
depressive thinking influenced their writings. The American Psychological Association states
that depressed people have deeper issues than simply being unhappy; they experience a lack of
interest and pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or excessive
sleeping, lack of energy, inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt and
recurrent thoughts of death or suicide” (Kazdin). Hemingway and Frost each display depressive
symptoms; Krebs - the main character in Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home,” – vividly depicts the
depressive thought processes, while Frost’s theme, tone, and symbolism in “Acquainted with the
Night,” recreate his ominously depressing mood.
Well documented medical history shows that mental illness passed genetically through
the Hemingway family tree. Ernest Hemingway would inherit “[i]nsomnia, erratic blood
pressure, [sic] and severe depression” and live with these conditions until his suicide in July
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1961 (Reynolds 609). Biographer Michael Reynolds suggests that Hemingway watched
insomnia and depression erode his father’s mental health until in 1928 Dr. Clarence Hemingway
shot himself (607). Ernest Hemingway’s sister Ursula and his brother Leicester also commit
suicide following Ernest and his father’s example. Using the first person perspective in his short
story “Soldier’s Home,” Hemingway describes his main character Krebs’ reactions upon
returning to his small Oklahoma hometown. Depressed and disillusioned Krebs cannot relate to
the community he once identified himself with; Krebs - the combat veteran having just fight War
I – cannot handle establishing and maintaining personal relationships in the same Oklahoma
town. Krebs states that he would prefer to “live alone and without consequences” (Hemingway
166). The American Psychological Association defines the decreased interest in pleasures
derived from daily activities symptomatic of depression. Hemingway, late in life, isolated
himself in the same manner that the character Krebs wished for himself (Reynolds 544-547);
clearly Hemingway wished that he could live without consequences himself.
Richard Poirier suggests that “Frost’s poetry […] is quite directly about the [...] work of
writing a poem” (278). Read allegorically Frost’s poem “Acquainted with the Night,” deals with
Frost’s willingness to experiment with different forms of poetry. Kyoko Amano suggests that the
“Night” in this poem represents unconventional or nontraditional forms of poetry; positing this
notion: “the "night" should not be taken as a conventional symbol; rather, the darkness […]
represents the […] form, and structure of a poem that no other poet has explored.” Frosts
juxtaposes the “Night” in “Acquainted with the Night,” with city light. Allegorically the city
lights in Frost’s poem express that the “speaker-poet has experimented with new techniques”
(Amano). When reading “Acquainted with the Night,” as a poem about writing poetry the
watchman represents Frost’s “conscience […] tell[ing] him to stay [o]n the traditional paths”
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(Amano). Keat Murray states that “The fact that the persona drops his eyes from the watchman
indicates a measure of guilt or reticence so dissonant that it resounds with a din from his
conscience all the way to God” (376). The watchman plays a highly significant role as a metaphor
for God in “Acquainted with the Night.” Deciding in the final couplet of the poem that the he is
“neither wrong nor right” Frost cannot explain why he must experiment in form but also cannot
tell his reader if he is wrong or right to experiment (703). An article dealing with Frost’s
struggle with atheism and theism suggests that “Frost's […] angst was interlinked with recurrent
anxiety about God,” (Sloan). Frost’s Christian God does not forgive wayward followers. Frost is
quoted saying "[m]y fear of God has settled down into a deep and inward fear that my best
offering may not prove acceptable in his sight," in which Frost displays the feelings of
worthlessness and guilt the American Psychological Association suggest as a symptom of
depression also serves to highlight his anxieties about a benevolent God (qtd in Sloan).
Depressive thinking abounds in the writings of Hemingway and Frost not only in
“Soldier’s Home,” and “Acquainted with the night,” but in many of their works. In “Soldier’s
Home,” Hemingway’s use of character and the first person perspective give the reader insight
into how the depressed mind functions; while in “Acquainted with the Night,” Frost’s use of
symbol and allegory convey his feelings of guilt and isolation. Depression of the magnitude that
these authors dealt with affects all aspects of a person’s life. There can be no doubt that the
weight of their troubled minds left some impression upon their life’s work; however it is
impossible to know whether the mental illness hindered or helped them in their success as
writers.
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Works Cited
Amano, Kyoko. "Frost's Acquainted with the Night." My Thoughts on Poetry. N.p., 2006. Web.
23 Feb 2012.
Frost, Robert. "Acquainted with the Night." The Compact Introduction to Literature. Ed.
Micheal Meyer. 8th. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 703. Print.
Hemingway, Ernest. "Soldier's Home." The Compact Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael
Meyer. 8th. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 166. Print.
Kazdin, Alan. Encyclopedia of Psychology. 8th. American Psychological Association, 2000.
Web. 16 Feb 2012.
Murray, Keat. "Robert Frost's Portrait of a Modern Mind:The Archetypal Resonance of
'Acquainted with the Night'." Midwest Quarterly. 41.4 (2000): 370-84. Print.
Poirier, Richard. Robert Frost: The work of knowing.. 1st. Stanford University Press, 1990. 278.
Print.
Potash, James. "Depression Stigma Sometimes Deadly." ABC News. 09 Aug 2007: n. pag.. Web.
23 Feb. 2012.
Reynolds, Michael. Hemingway: The final Years. New York: Norton, 1999. 544-547. Print.
Reynolds, Michael. “Hemingway’s Home: Depression and Suicide.”American Literature. 57, 4.
1985. 600-610. Print.
Sloan, Gary. "Robert Frost: Old Testament Christian or Atheist?" Eclectica Magazine. Apr 2003:
n. pag.. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.
Winters, Yvor. "Robert Frost: Or, the Spiritual Drifter as Poet." The Function of Criticism:
Problems and Exercises, Alan Swallow (1957). Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale Research, 1979. Literature Resources from
Gale. Web. 9 Feb. 2012.