Ernest Hemingway Lived His Life To The Fullest. He Experienced More Th
an any other man. Since not many people traveled as much as Ernest, Ernest shared his experiences in books. In ?The Snows of Kilimanjaro?, ?Hills like White Elephants?, and ?In Another Country?, Ernest Hemingway uses a great deal of dialogue to help the reader identify with the characters in the story to show the reader how he perceives the situation of his experiences.
In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, ?In Another Country?, a man is shocked by reality when he hurt his leg in World War I. This short story is primarily described with dialogue between the wounded man and other injured patience in the hospital.
The short story takes place in Milan, Italy, in the middle of winter, during World War I. The events in ?In Another Country?, that are discussed relate to Ernest’s experiences as a Red Cross ambulance driver.
One night when Ernest decided to work a longer shift in the trenches, a bomb exploded right next to him. The only thing between Ernest and the bomb was a soldier. Without even thinking, Ernest immediately begin carrying the injured men out of the trench. While Ernest was carrying a man, he was shot in the knee.
In ?In Another Country? Ernest describes his experiences in the hospital in Milan. Even though it is never said the narrator in the story is obviously Ernest.
The dialogue between the Italian major and the narrator of the story, first is focused on the majors hand injury, and the machines that are suppose to provide the miracle cure for the major’s and the narrator’s injuries.
But what the reader quickly learns is that the major suffers not from the injury of his hand, but the loss of his wife. The machines becomes a hollow promise with unbelievable photographs with miracle cures, but the message is the majors life is empty with the loss of his wife. In the mitts of all the war and wounds, what really mattered to the major was the love of his life. The narrator was told not to marry because he could lose everything which really put back in focus what is in important, the love of ones life.
This surprisingly had a great effect on Ernest’s life. Ernest was married four times. He could never settle down with just one woman. For that matter, he couldn’t settle down anywhere for a long period of time. He was afraid he would grow too attached to something and then lose it. ?A man must not marry…he cannot marry, he cannot marry, if he was to lose everything, he shouldn’t not place himself in the position to lose that. He should not place himself in a position to lose. He should find things he cannot lose.? (Hemingway 582) Hemingway practically lived by these words that the major said to the narrator in ?In Another Country?.
In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, a couple is depicted, primarily through dialogue, in a conflict over an issue which is really never mentioned, but is obviously an abortion. The story takes place at a railroad station in the Ebro Valley of Spain. The issues discussed in the story are amazingly similar to events which haunted Ernest’s life. The characteristics of the man portrayed in the story are depictive of Ernest.
One prevalent theme within the story “Hills Like White Elephants” is alcohol. The story takes place in a bar at a railway station and begins with a man and a woman sampling various alcoholic drinks which include “cervezas” and “Anis del Toros.” It becomes clear that drinking is a major part of the couple’s relationship when the woman later remarks, “That’s all we do, isn’t it. . . try new drinks.”(Hemmingway 422)
Alcohol played an extremely significant and extensive role in Ernest’s life. Ernest commonly visited bars in the morning and would drink throughout the remainder of the day. Ernest’s fourth wife, Mary, commented that she and Ernest “drank champagne and brandy always” (Hemingway 422).Ernest’s wives would find empty bottles of whiskey under his bed because he would often drink himself to sleep. Alcohol dominated Ernest’s life as well as his relationships with women.
Travel is another theme within this story. Sitting in the Spanish railway station, looking across a plain at distant mountains, the woman compares the features of the plains to the couple’s life. She says, “That’s all we do, isn’t it – look at things. . .”
Constant motion and the search for new places were an important parts of Ernest’s life. As an expatriate in the 1920’s, Ernest enjoyed living in Paris, visiting Spain, and traveling western Europe. This railway scene in “Hills Like White Elephants” is clearly one that Ernest had experienced many times.
But maybe the most convincingly individual point of similarity between Ernest’s personal life experience and this story, lies in the conflict of the story, which is the disagreement between the man and the woman over whether the woman should have an abortion. In this example, Ernest conveys the egocentric nature of the man and his struggle for dominance over the woman, two traits of Ernest himself.
The man is seen arguing and supporting an abortion. He says, “It’s really an awfully simple operation. . . it’s not really an operation at all.” To address the woman’s stated view that their deteriorating relationship is hollow, consisting of “trying new drinks” and “looking at things,” the man argues further that “[the abortion] is the only thing that bothers us” and that if she has the abortion, “[we will be] just like we were before.” The man’s intent to impose his viewpoint upon the woman is further evidenced through his continual reiteration that the operation is “perfectly simple.” Following each instance in which he tells the woman that she doesn’t have to have the abortion if she doesn’t want to or that he wants what she wants, he reassures his position that he doesn’t want anybody but her and that he knows the operation is perfectly simple.
The self-centered nature of the man presented in the story is extremely similar to Ernest’s relationships with women. According to his first wife, Hadley Hemingway, Ernest is described as “having an instinctive habit of putting his own needs ahead of hers” (Kert 152). “[Hemingway] wanted the women in his life to. . . put him first, all the time, ahead of anything else” (Kert 389). That basically means Ernest’s interest in women was limited to their ability to serve his best interests.
In the story, Ernest portrays the couple in a relationship in which the male has been dominant over his female counterpart at a moment when the future of that dominance seems in doubt. Ernest’s use of the word “girl” in contrast to “man” when referring to these individual characters demonstrates this thought. After the man first states his desire for the woman to have an abortion, “the girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.” Then, after the man further argued his viewpoint, “the girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.” (Hemingway 422)These responses may show the woman’s weakness and inability to stand up to the man’s conflicting viewpoint, but they may also suggest a growing distance between the two, prefiguring an inevitable break up of the couple.
She expresses a faint hint of her desire to keep the child when she says, “once they take it away, you never get it back”, but she immediately retreats when again confronted with the man’s differing desire. She finally terminates the entire conflict by begging the man to “please please please please please please please stop talking.” (Hemingway 422) The woman’s evasion of confrontation and her inability to communicate her beliefs demonstrate the man’s dominance over the relationship and the woman’s weak nature; or they suggest her awareness of the futility of asking the man to see things as she sees them.
Analogously, after a childhood and youth controlled and manipulated ruthlessly by his mother, Ernest sought to dominate the women in his life. Ernest’s domineering attitude towards women stems from his infatuation with masculinity. Ernest was a firm believer in a more traditional role for men and women. He believed a woman’s duties included sexual satisfaction, companionship, and general service for her male counterpart. A man was to participate in masculine activities such as hunting, fishing, and bull fighting, all for which Ernest was an avid enthusiast. Ernest thought dominance over women meant fulfillment of his masculinity. In reference to Ernest’s relationship with Hadley, Ernest is described as a “dominator of Hadley’s life” (Kert 152).
Although Ernest warns us that the story “Hills Like White Elephants ” is purely fictional, the plot features of the story and the characteristics of the man in the story that say ?Ernest Hemingway?. Perhaps it is true that the story was neither modeled after an actual event in Ernest’s life, nor was the man in the story intended to represent Ernest exactly, but there is no doubting that Ernest drew from various aspects of his life and himself in creating this story.
?The Snows of Kilimanjaro? is a great example of when Ernest Hemingway uses a great deal of dialogue to help the reader identify with the characters. When Ernest uses dialogue in this short story, he avoids using ?he said?, ?she said? phrases. I think this method of writing is very confusing because I never had any idea which character is saying what.
?The Snows of Kilimanjaro? is about a man who has just survived an airplane crash in Kenya. The stories plot is what the man and his wife are experiencing while waiting for a rescue plane to bring the man (who is seriously injured) to a hospital. Even though it is never mentioned, Ernest is the man being described in this story.
In Ernest’s life time, he has survived two airplane crashes which both accord in Africa. This story is a reflection of one of Ernest’s personal experience.
One prevalent theme in ?The Snows of Kilimanjaro? is of survival. Ernest’s life revolved around survival. He would do anything and everything that people said, ?couldn’t be done?. Basically, the man never died. He thought that to be a man, he had to accomplish the impossible. In this short story, Ernest was telling the reader that the odds of surviving a life threatening airplane crash were almost impossible, and he was in a way, boasting to the reader that he survived it… he accomplished the impossible.
In this story, the man who survived the airplane crash, was seriously injured, and the odds for his survival weren’t too high. He [the man], knew this and was eager to end his life.
The man quotes in the story, ?Can’t you let a man die as comfortably as he can without calling him names? What’s the use of slanging me??
?You’re not going to die.?
?Don’t be silly. I’m dying now. Ask those bastards .? He looked over to wear the huge, filthy birds sat, their naked heads sunk in the hunched feathers. A fourth planed down, to run quick-legged and then waddle slowly towards the others.
?They are around every camp. You never notice them. You can’t die if you don’t give up.?
?Where did you read that? You’re such a bloody fool.? (Hemingway 53)
This is a fraction of some dialogue that Ernest writes in ?The Snows of Kilimanjaro?. The two young couple in this story are arguing over the man’s survival. In some of the short stories Ernest writes, the male is the dominant figure who always wins arguments. This is very important because Ernest believed that men were better than women, and showed it without actually explaining it, in most of his writings including ?The Snows of Kilimanjaro?.
Ernest Hemingway is an extraordinary man with a talent for writing. His stories have touched peoples lives leaving them questioning Ernest’s morals, and opinions of what roles he thought men had in his time period. Even though people disagree with Ernest’s opinions, he is still a great author. As Ernest would say, ?People are stubborn like horses; you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink.? (Hemingway 17)
