Author and Current Event

Ernest Hemingway was a writer who made the Lost Generation movement popular. This period was referred to the time after the second world war. Hemingway fought in World War I and the Spanish Civil War, so he was well acquainted with the politics of war. A current event that would probably intrigue him would most likely be the war on terror. During World War I, he was an ambulance driver and was discharged after being shot and injured while saving a fellow soldier. Our current war on terror is primarily focused in the Middle East. We've been fighting the war on terror since October 7, 2001. Based on Hemingway's novels and his experiences with war, I think he would be displeased with the way we've run things in the war. He wrote several books about the aftermath of fighting in a war and what it does to a man's soul. Hemingway would think that we've dragged this war out for far too long. It took us over 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden, and with all the technology we have and advanced weaponry, we should've been able to find him a lot quicker. I honestly think that Hemingway would be both proud and disappointed with our actions. Proud of the fact that we haven't abandoned our fight for manageable peace, and disappointed that the world has turned to such events and all over each countries religious beliefs and views on government control.

Literary Analysis

In “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman, you read about a short story that is just like the novel 1984. The Harlequin's name was Everett and he was considered a nonconformist by the Ticktockman. He was really just a free minded man who wanted to fight against government control. Like Winston in 1984, Everett was eventually taken by the government and brainwashed to conform to their ways. Harlan Ellison wrote this short story in 1965, which was a time when the nation was worried about a nuclear war happening at any moment. This dystopic short story could be based off of how the nation was during the time era. Many people just did what the government told them they needed to do. In “Repent Harlequin!”, the Ticktockman is the person who keeps everyone on time and in check. He is the authority that is being called into question. Whenever someone is late to work or an appointment, the schedule is thrown off and everything becomes unbalanced. When Everett releases the jelly beans, the master schedule is thrown off by seven minutes and the Ticktockman orders him to appear before him at seven o' clock on the dot. He doesn't show up until ten thirty though, throwing the schedule of even more. The Ticktockman begins to 'obsess' over finding out who the Harlequin is. He orders a city wide search for him after one of his pranks at a construction site. When he is finally captured, he and the Ticktockman have a verbal fight over why what the Harlequin did was wrong. Everett tells the Ticktockman that he hates this world and that other people do too. The Ticktockman rebuttals this by telling him that his companion, Pretty Alice, was the one who told the authorities where to find him. In the end, Everett is taken by the government and brainwashed until he conforms to their ways. At the end of the story, the Ticktockman is three minutes late and has thrown the master schedule off in the process. When a worker tells him this, he declares it impossible with a sheepish grin hidden behind his mask. As he walks away you hear him murmuring “mrmee, mrmee, mrmee, mrmee”. This could suggest that the Ticktockman was shown a side of life that he hadn't known until the Harlequin and his shenanigans and that he is just like him.

The Writing Styles of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is believed to have belonged to several different types of literary movements. The one I believe best describes his writing is The Iceberg Principle. This principle is the case in which a very small amount of information is available or visible in the situation while the 'real' information is unavailable or hidden. He can also be considered a modernist. After the events of WWI, many writers turned away from the Victorian style of the 19^th century. Hemingway also belongs to the Lost Generation. This type of writing style is defined by the sense of moral loss or aimlessness that was apparent in literary figures during the 1920s. Hemingway completely did away with the florid prose of the 19^th century by replacing it with a lean, clear prose based on action.

 

Works Cited Page

Business Dictionary. The Iceberg Principle. Web.<>. April. 16. 2012. <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/iceberg-principle.html>

Neabigread. Hemingway's Writing Style. Web. PDF. April. 16. 2012 <http://www.neabigread.org/books/farewelltoarms/teachers/hemingway_handout03.pdf>

Montgomery College. The Lost Generation. Web. April. 16. 2012. <http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/jbolhofer.html>

The Life of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21^st, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. His father was a physician, which earned him a lot of prestige as a child. It helped him learn about music, and art while growing up in a clean safe neighborhood. He went to Oak Park and River Forest High School. While there, he participated in a number of sports such as boxing, track and field, water polo, and football. He excelled in his English classes and his junior year he took journalism classes. The kids with the best articles had their pieces submitted to the The Trapeze. Hemingway’s first piece was published in this paper; it was about the local performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After high school, Hemingway went to work for The Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. Even though he was only there for six months, he relied on the Star’s style as a foundation for his writings. He drove ambulances during WWI until he was wounded. After returning home from the war, Hemingway found the inspiration to write “Big Two-Hearted River.” Hemingway married four times and had 3 boys.

            In 1921, after marrying his first wife, Hadley, the Hemingway’s moved to Paris to be a correspondent for the Toronto Star to cover the Greco-Turkish War. In 1923, his first book, three stories and ten poems were published in Paris by Robert McAlmon. Hemingway wrote the entire novel “The Sun Also Rises” in just six weeks on the terrace of his favorite restaurant, the La Closerie des Lilas. His original manuscript for “A Farewell to Arms” was stolen, but this proved to be a good thing. Because he had to re-write the novel, he had tome to reconsider his previous writing and improved it. He stripped away all the decorations and made it just matter-of-factly, concentrated and compressed. Hemingway published “A Farewell to Arms” in 1929 when other WWI books were being published. At this time, he was already married to his second wife, Pauline, and had a second son named Patrick. Almost all the characters in the novel are based off someone Hemingway knew in real life. While it wasn’t a war novel, the main theme was of life and death. After the success of “A Farewell to Arms”, Hemingway went on a safari in 1932, many animals died and The Green Hills of Africa, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber were the literary results.

            In 1939, the woman who would become his third wife, Martha, inspired him to write his most famous novel ever, “For Whom The Bell Tolls.” He wrote about the happenings in the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). In 1940, after divorcing Pauline, Hemingway and Martha married. In 1941, when Martha was sent to China on an assignment, he went with her. Later, during WWII, he participated in D-day but he didn’t leave the boat because the crew thought him to be too precious cargo. After the war, he married Mary; after her ectopic pregnancy, they suffered many injuries and accidents as well as health issues. Hemingway had a platonic love affair with a 19-year-old named Adriana Ivancich. She inspired him to write the novel “Across the River and Into the Trees.” It received generally negative reviews and the following year he sat down and wrote the draft for “The Old Man and the Sea” in eight weeks. This made him an international celebrity. During his final years, Hemingway’s behavior was like that of his father’s before he too committed suicide. Its believed that he suffered from hemochromatosis which is the inability to metabolize iron culminates in mental and physical deterioration. In the end, he committed suicide on July 2^nd, 1961.