Gulistan state university department of the english language and literature

1.2 Works and Writings

Hemingway's writing includes themes of love, war, travel, wilderness, and loss. Hemingway often wrote about Americans abroad. "In six of the seven novels published during his lifetime," writes Jeffrey Herlihy in Hemingway's Expatriate Nationalism, "the protagonist is abroad, bilingual, and bicultural." Herlihy calls this "Hemingway's Transnational Archetype" and argues that the foreign settings, "far from being mere exotic backdrops or cosmopolitan milieus, are motivating factors in-character action." Critic Leslie Fiedler sees the theme he defines as "The Sacred Land"—the American West—extended in Hemingway's work to include mountains in Spain, Switzerland and Africa, and to the streams of Michigan. The American West is given a symbolic nod with the naming of the "Hotel Montana" in The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls. According to Stoltzfus and Fiedler, in Hemingway's work, nature is a place for rebirth and rest; and it is where the hunter or fisherman might experience a moment of transcendence at the moment they kill their prey. Nature is where men exist without women: men fish; men hunt; men find redemption in nature. Although Hemingway does write about sports, such as fishing, Carlos Baker notes the emphasis is more on the athlete than the sport. At its core, much of Hemingway's work can be viewed in the light of American naturalism, evident in detailed descriptions such as those in "Big Two-Hearted River".⁹

Fiedler believes Hemingway inverts the American literary theme of the evil "Dark Woman" versus the good "Light Woman". The dark woman—Brett Ashley of The Sun Also Rises—is a goddess; the light woman—Margot Macomber of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"—is a murderess. Robert Scholes says early Hemingway stories, such as "A Very Short Story", present "a male character favorably and a female unfavorably". According to Rena Sanderson, early Hemingway critics lauded his male-centric world of masculine pursuits, and the fiction divided women into "castrators or love-slaves". Feminist critics attacked Hemingway as "public enemy number one", although more recent re-evaluations of his work "have given new visibility to Hemingway's female characters (and their strengths) and have revealed his own sensitivity to gender issues, thus casting doubts on the old assumption that his writings were one-sidedly masculine." Nina Baym believes that Brett Ashley and Margot Macomber "are the two outstanding examples of Hemingway's 'bitch women.'"

After establishing his career as a writer, Ernest Hemingway earned huge success in life. He gained immense popularity on account of his thoughtful ideas and unconventional style. Using his unique simple style of writing, he has shed light on the horrors of warfare, biting loneliness, and the horrible sadness of losing loved ones. By applying techniques like irony, contrast, and autobiographical details, he talks about the emotions people experience in life. His works deal with simple yet complex diction to enhance the unique perspective presented to the readers. Ernest Hemingway intentionally used this distinct style to separate himself from other writers. The recurring thematic strands in most of the writings are love, war, wilderness, and man versus nature. Regarding literary devices, he often turns to metaphors, foreshadowing, imagery, and similes to create a unique style.