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The darkness of insanity (Click to select text)
Ernest Hemingway was a very talented writer of short stories. He is even thought by many to be better at writing short stories than at writing his novels. He portrays the philosophy of existentialism. A philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way man finds himself existing in the world. He combines this with a code that Hemingway expects his characters to adhere to. They are, a person must be responsible for their actions, a near death experience is probably as closes to the truth as a person can come, above all else courage, if there is no god, than man’s fate is in his own hands, and man must always be active. The first code, a person must be responsible for his actions, is shown in his short stories, "the Battler" and "The Killers". In "The Battler", Nick Adams gets beaten down into a deformed lonely man because he chouses to fight and continue to fight. This quote from "The Battler" shows that Nick is in bad shape. "(Nick) was dead looking in the firelight" (Hemingway 131). In the short story, "The Killers" this code again is portrayed. Ole Anderson, a character in "The Killers", did something wrong earlier in his life and he will now pay for it with his life because there are killers out to get him. As this quote shows Ole Anderson knows he will now die, "There isn’t anything I can do about it." (Hemingway 287) The second code, a near death experience is probably as closes to the truth as a person can come, is shown in the short story "Soldiers Home". In "Soldiers Home", Harold Karps grows up in an Oklahoma, God-loving society and then goes to war. When he comes home he has the will to live. This quote represents Harold, just sitting around waiting to die,"(like) bacon fat hardening on his plate" (Hemingway 151) Hemingway’s third code, above all else courage, is shown in Hemingway’s short story, "The Undefeated". In "The Undefeated", Manuel, even at his age, shows courage and defeats the bull. In this quote, Manuel displays a courageous act, " ‘All right you Basterd!’ Manuel drew the sword out of the muleta, sighed with the movement and flung himself on to the bull." (Hemingway 264) The fourth code, if there is no god, than man’s fate is in his own hands, is shown in the short story," Soldiers Home." In this story Harold Krebs goes to war and he sees a lot of death and sadness that he was never exposed to before, so he lost his faith in God. This is shown in this quote, " ‘God has work for everyone to do,’ his mother said, ’there can be no idle hands in his kingdom.' Krebs said." (Hemingway 151) Hemingway’s fifth and final code is, man must always be active. This is shown in the short story, "A Clean Well Lighted Place." In this story a sad old man at a bar was not active in his life and now he has nothing to live for. This quote shows how sad this man is, "Last week (the old man) tried to commit suicide" (Hemingway 379) In conclusion, Ernest Hemingway put a lot of thought into his short stories. So you can learn a lot about Hemingway himself by reading his stories. Like, outlined in this essay, the code Hemingway tries to live by. The way that Hemingway puts so much of himself into his short stories is why he is thought to be among the greatest short story writers of all time.
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