Ernest Hemingway is one of my favourite writers, For Whom the Bell Tolls perhaps my favourite novel. I read an article recently which examines Hemingway’s hero characters. A love of life, the ceaseless quest for grace under pressure, the need for testing and for living intensely. You may disagree and think it’s all claptrap; have your say in the comments below!
“When you are dead you are dead.” There is nothing more. If man cannot accept a life or reward after death, the emphasis must then be on obtaining or doing or performing something in this particular life. If death ends all activity, if death ends all knowledge and consciousness, man must seek his reward here, now, immediately.
It is the duty of the Hemingway hero to avoid death at almost all cost. Life must continue. Life is valuable and enjoyable. Life is everything. Death is nothing. With this view in mind it might seem strange then to the casual or superficial reader that the Hemingway code hero will often be placed in an encounter with death, or that the Hemingway hero will often choose to confront death. From this we derive the idea of grace under pressure. This concept is one according to which the character must act in a way that is acceptable when he is faced with the fact of death. The Hemingway man must have fear of death, but he must not be afraid to die.
If man wishes to live, he lives most intensely sometimes when he is in the direct presence of death. The man has not yet been tested; we don’t know whether he will withstand the pressures, whether he will prove to be a true Hemingway man. It is only by testing, by coming into confrontation with something that is dangerous that man lives with this intensity. In the presence of death, then, man can discover his own sense of being, his own potentiality.
What Hemingway is searching for are absolute values, which will be the same and constant at every moment of every day and of every day of every week.
The Hemingway hero will often say, “Don’t let’s talk about it.” This means after he has performed some act of bravery he will not discuss it. Talking is emotionalism. It is the action that is important. If you talk about the act too much you lose the importance of the act itself.
Ultimately therefore, for Hemingway the only value that will serve man is an innate faculty of self-discipline. This is a value that grows out of man’s essential being, in his inner nature. If a man has discipline to face one thing on one day he will still possess that same degree of discipline on another day and in another situation.
Hey Al,
Love the new site. Im not great at commenting but the posts are continually fresh and thought provoking. Im swaying between getting back into the working world or going straight for another adventure, needless to say your pushing me towards the latter.
Take care then, hope the families keeping well.
David
Love the new look website!!