[lit-ideas] Hemingway and Expectations
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:28:38 -0500
"... living up to expectations ..." in the sense of always having
expectations (of hypermasculinity, hyperfemininity) to live up to, and by
implication always falling short, in their own minds.
----- Original Message -----
From: Andy Amago
To: lit-ideas
Sent: 2/26/2006 8:21:50 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Hemingway Again
I'm considering my reconsideration of Hemingway. After reading a few stories,
I still like him a lot, but, based on the stories that I read and a small
amount of side reading, I've concluded that Hemingway is basically afraid of
his emotions. The Hemingway Code Hero is someone who simply doesn't know how
to be/doesn't feel like a man. Therefore, in the absence of internal cues
regarding manhood, he surrounds himself with rules on how to be a "real man".
Ultimately the Hemingway Code position is consistent with his eventual suicide.
The Code is an emotional defense mechanism as much as anything else.
Some of the stories are quite beautiful (one that I read is even humorous).
They often repeat some form of death or threat of death, often from some
unknown source. The Killers, for example, has the Swede passively accepting
his fate and we never know why he?s hunted. In that sense Hemingway?s stories
seem almost existential, except his universe is hostile rather than
indifferent. Hemingway is obsessed with death in his stories, in my opinion,
because in real life death often symbolizes repressed emotions. His
protagonists repeatedly dying, especially when seen in the light of his
eventual suicide, seems to form a wish fulfillment. H is is a painful, scary,
out of control world. Hemingway, like Marilyn Monroe, is clearly an unhappy
person, he hiding behind a facade of cartoonish manhood, she hiding behind a
facade of cartoonish womanhood. Both are adrift, alone, living up to
expectations.
I've come away liking Hemingway because he captures in words the essence of
being nitty gritty human: angry, scared, sad, lonely and doing his best to cope
with it until he no longer could. He's my man.
From the Internet:
Hemingway is a renowned American author of the Twentieth century who centers
his novels around personal experiences and affections. He is one of the authors
named "The Lost Generation." He could not cope with post-war America, and
therefore he introduced a new type of character in writing called the "code
hero". Hemingway is known to focus his novels around code heroes who struggle
with the mixture of their tragic faults and the surrounding environment. Traits
of a typical Hemingway Code Hero are a love of good times, stimulating
surroundings, and strict moral rules, including honesty. The Code Hero always
exhibits some form of a physical wound that serves as his tragic flaw and the
weakness of his character.
Characteristics of Hemingway's Code Hero
Hemingway defined the Code Hero as "a man who lives correctly, following the
ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic,
often stressful, and always painful."
The Code Hero measures himself by how well they handle the difficult situations
that life throws at him. In the end the Code Hero will lose because we are all
mortal, but the true measure is how a person faces death.
The Code believes in "Nada," a Spanish word meaning nothing. Along with this,
there is no after life.
The Code Hero is typically an individualist and free-willed. Although he
believes in the ideals of courage and honor he has his own set of morals and
principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage and endurance. A code hero
never shows emotions; showing emotions and having a commitment to women shows
weakness. Qualities such as bravery, adventuresome and travel also define the
Code Hero.
A final trait of the Code Hero is his dislike of the dark. It symbolizes death
and is a source of fear for him. The rite of manhood for the Code Hero is
facing death. However, once he faces death bravely and becomes a man he must
continue the struggle and constantly prove himself to retain his manhood
http://faculty.millikin.edu/~mdwiggins/code_hero.htm
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