Strolling through the American Cultural Garden [Part 14]

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist.

The writer Ernest Miller Hemingway.

He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, to a doctor father and a singer mother. His family owned a house on Walloon Lake, near Petoskey, Michigan, and often spent their summers there. These early experiences of living close to nature instilled in Hemingway a lifelong passion for outdoor adventures and life in remote, secluded areas.

He did not attend college, was largely self-taught, and began his writing career as a correspondent for The Kansas City Star. On the occasion of Ernest Hemingway's centenary (1899), The Star recognized Hemingway as the newspaper's leading correspondent of the past century.

Hemingway's writing style is concise (like a "telegram"), succinct, simple, and profoundly influential in the development of 20th-century literature. The central characters in his works are those embodying Stoicism. Many of his works are now considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was a World War I veteran, wounded and known as part of the "Lost Generation". In 1953, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel *The Old Man and the Sea*, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 for his lifetime literary contributions.

He traveled to many countries, especially France, working as a press correspondent. His novel *The Sun Also Rises* (1926) was his first work to receive acclaim. Using realism, he depicted the meaningless, purposeless lives of American writers in exile in Paris before and after World War I. *A Farewell to Arms* (1929) is an anti-war novel that highlights the inhumanity of militarism. It tells the story of a young, wounded officer who deserts and runs away with his lover, a medic, but she dies; war is the culprit destroying their happiness. Hemingway is representative of the "Lost Generation" of American writers in the 1920s, who had lost all ideals and beliefs, feeling lost and alienated.

For ten years, from 1929 to 1939, Hemingway was fascinated by bullfighting in Spain, inspiring his works *Death in the Afternoon* (1932); *Green Hills of Africa* (1935) depicts his hunting expeditions. He viewed hunting and bullfighting as trials and means to understand death. He worked as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War (1936), praising the heroic people in *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1940) and the espionage play *The Fifth Column* (1938).

The novella *To Have and Have Not* (1937) depicts a bitter scene of the economic crisis, criticizes society, and expresses the author's anxieties. At the Second Congress of American Writers, he was the first to openly attack fascism. During World War II, he served as a war correspondent in England and France, joining the guerrillas in the liberation of Paris. *Across the River and into the Trees* (1950) recounts the love and death of a general demoted to colonel shortly after the war.

The short story "The Old Man and the Sea" (1952) celebrates humanity's triumph over nature and is a world- renowned work. From the sadness of the "Lost Generation," Hemingway transformed, praising the spiritual strength of humanity in confronting nature in a lonely and fierce struggle.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, a novel reflecting the soul of intellectuals in the 1930s, their need to commit themselves to an ideal, contrasts with Hemingway's own disillusioned and disillusioned attitude of the 1920s. The style is not as dry as he usually writes, but full of lyrical romance, portraying the human condition in the game of love and death.

The story is set during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Robert Jordan, an idealistic American university professor, travels to Spain to fight on the Republican side. His mission is to destroy a strategic bridge. He joins a partisan unit led by Pablo and his wife, Pilar. Pilar, a resolute peasant woman, embodies Spain and its will for freedom. Jordan falls in love with Maria, a partisan who was raped by the Nazis.

During their three days together, despite death looming large, the two lovers passionately forgot about time and the war. The fascists crushed the guerrilla unit nearby. Jordan knew that blowing up the bridge at that moment would be futile, but the General Staff had made the decision, and he carried out the order. The bridge collapsed, and he broke a leg. He ordered everyone to retreat, remaining alone at the edge of the forest, waiting for the enemy. Though he wanted to live, he accepted death.

The novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" can be considered a work of "atonement," a repentance by the author, marking a shift towards a path of commitment, in contrast to his earlier period of irresponsibility towards society. The characters in the work share similar personalities to the author himself at different stages, often haunted by the dialectical pair of "fear - courage" or "toughness - weakness."

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