About the authorErnest HemingwayA journalist and war correspondent, Hemingway born in July 21, 1899 was a popular novelist and writer of short stories. He was influenced at an early age by the outdoors and arts, the latter a way of life instilled in my his forward thinking mother. In his early adulthood, he worked as a reporter covering the local fights and incidents.
Later on working in Red Cross, he was injured and then his first relationship failed. All of this combined gave him ample time to recover, introspect and to develop his emotional writing abilities which is reflected in his writing.
A man of adventures and journeys, Hemingway derived inspiration and excitement from his travels. popular magazines like Life and Esquire regularly featured his various vacation trips, sports activities and escapades.
Witnessing his first bullfight in the Spanish summer of 1923, a sport he both condemned and was dazzled by. Here is where the first creative seeds of "The Sun Also Rises." was sown in his head. The race with blood thirsty bulls at Pamplona and the run which never seems to end, all matched Hemingway's sense of adventure. The book was a success. Not so smooch with a later non-fiction book, ‘Death in the Afternoon.’
Hemingway travelled to Africa on a shooting safari in November 1933. The place and its traditions, the onset of colonialism, is reflected in his short story collections "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," and a nonfiction book "Green Hills of Africa."
His life was mostly about hunting and fishing trips, being a very outdoorsy person, but there was a sense of nationalism in Hemingway. In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War began, he had donated money for ambulances being a supporter of the anti-Fascist forces.
World War 2 was a time when For Whom the Bell Tolls was published. Not just in novels and literary work, but even as correspondents for local newspapers, Hemingway was witness to the Japanese bombing of the Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the D-day invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
"The Old Man and the Sea" earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and in 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
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‘All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’
This line by Hemingway rings true even today in our ever changing and chaotic world.
His most popular novels were
For Whom the Bell Tolls, the Old Man and the Sea, A Moveable Feast, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, Death in the Afternoon.The Snows of KilimanjaroThe collection can be called highly adventurous, reflecting not only on Hemingway's travels and stories but also very autobiographical. The stories are inspired from Hemingway’s experiences on safari in East Africa in 1934. The story of the frozen leopard on Mt. Kilimanjaro was taken from an anecdote by his hunting guide during this safari. Many of the people, places and events are from memories of Paris to the Black Forest, are taken from Hemingway’s own life. The story “Short Happy Life” deals with Hemingway’s familiar themes of masculinity, courage, and cowardice in a very rough and outdoor setting.
This collection also represents Hemingway’s interest in loneliness and quiet dignity. The characters deal with difficult but wordless struggles of loss as they fight to understand connection, and what death and life really mean.
I review two of his popular stories from the collection - the title story and Fathers and Sons.
Title story - The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Harry, a writer, and his wife, Helen, are on a safari in Africa. Harry is affected by the gangrene that has infected his leg. This has made him crabby and he snaps at his wife. As they wait for a rescue plane from Nairobi, Harry spends his time drinking and insulting Helen. Harry reviews his life in flashes, realising that he wasted his talent through procrastination and laziness from a marriage to a wealthy woman that he doesn't love because he valued money at one point of time in his life.
In his memories are happier times. Harry recalls the mountains of Bulgaria and Constantinople, as well as the delirious feeling of being alone in Paris. Later, there were Turks, and an American poet talking gibberish about the Dada movement.
As Harry lies on his cot, he is aware that vultures are walking around his makeshift camp, and a hyena lurks in the shadows. Knowing that he will die soon, he goes to sleep and dreams that the rescue plane is taking him to a snow covered summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Its Western summit is called the Masai "Ngàje Ngài," the House of God, where he sees the legendary leopard.
Helen wakes, and taking a flashlight, walks toward Harry's cot. Seeing that his leg is dangling alongside the cot and that the dressings are pulled down, she calls his name repeatedly. She listens for his breathing and can hear nothing. Outside the tent, the hyena whines — a cry that is strangely human.
Adapted from HemingwayBlog.
ThemesSelf analysis
The story is a reflection of a man on his deathbed. He is sorrowful, regretful and angry as well as apologetic all at once. Harry’s swirl of emotions is what we all go through when we are bedridden even if not in old age. Just as Harry goes through introspection, the human mind and heart come together for a tug of war at several key points in our life.
Death vs Life
The deathbed or one’s sick bed can be a place where one goes back to point A of life and echoes the journey. Harry thinks about his marriage decisions, the travels he made and the characters he encountered. He seems to value the more important bits and wonders at the decisions he made in lieu of money and a better life.
Travel as a self discovery path
Harry’s adventurous life has been one of a traveler of pleasure and leisure. He has encountered many bewildering characters too. From the half carcass of a man to some random stranger talking nonsense, his trips have shaped him to be the person he is today. From meeting war veterans in Karagatch, Turkey, leisurely breakfasts at Madlener-haus to skiing on the snow like a bird in the air in Arlberg, Harry has gained and learnt a lot of perspectives.
Fathers and SonsThe story focuses on the themes of relationships and role models by following three generations of fathers and sons through the memories of the main character, Nick Adams. Nick and his son discuss hunting, which makes Nick think of his own father, and his relationship with him. This was the first time that Hemingway alluded to the suicide of his own father in any of his writings.
The narrator, 38-year-old Nick Adams, is driving through a small town with his son. The only two characters in this very autobiographical story bring to life a simple relationship but often complicated- parent and child.
It is an agriculture based country - farming and timber, and Nick speculates where he would find coveys of quail in the thickets. Thinking about quail hunting reminds him of his father, who taught him to hunt and who has recently died. Nick remembers the most striking thing about his father were his deep-set eyes and extremely keen eyesight. He remembers standing with his father on the shore of a lake, and how his father would be able to see things on the opposite shore that he could not.
Describing his father as a nervous, disciplined man but often suspicious of others, Nick is not critical of his father but shows how that personality trait often became a barrier in their relationship to develop.
Nick’s son says he cannot remember what his grandfather was like, and Nick describes him as a great hunter and fisherman, an even greater shot than Nick. His son disputes this, and then asks why they never go to pray at his grandfather’s tomb, as people do in France, where he goes to school. Nick says because it isn’t geographically convenient, and his son says he wants to go anyway, and that he wants to be able to pray at Nick’s tomb as well. Nick ends the story by saying that he sees they’ll have to go to his father’s tomb.
Adapted from HemingwayBlog
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