Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)

Ernest Hemingway

1. Life (1) born in a small town called Oak Park in

Illinois near Chicago (2) father: a successful physician, middle class,

love fishing and hunting; mother: music teacher (3) a happy childhood; a lover of brutal sports,

such as boxing and football in middle school

Ernest Hemingway

(4) Though his father hoped him to be a physician, Hemingway refused to enter university. He chose to be a reporter.

(5) During the WWI, he wanted to join the army but was refused because of his poor eyesight. Then Hemingway came to Italy to work as an ambulance driver. He was seriously wounded in the battlefield. The nightmarish war experience changed his life.

Ernest Hemingway

(6) After the war, he still worked as a reporter. He was sent to Paris and knew Pound, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and some other famous writers who encouraged him to write.

(7) He also worked as a war reporter in the Spanish Civil War and the WWII.

Ernest Hemingway

(8) He is a tough guy with rather masculine manner. In all his life, he loved tough games, such as boxing, hunting, deep-sea fishing, bullfight and so on.

(9) In 1961, Hemingway shot himself with gun in his home.

Ernest Hemingway

2. Works (1) “The Sun Also Rises” (2) “A Farewell to Arms” (3) “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (4) “The Old Man and the Sea” 1952 (In 1954, Hemingway got the Nobel Prize)

Ernest Hemingway

3. Conclusion (1) From Hemingway’s novels a clear

developing process can be found. From the lost state at the beginning, he gradually found out the significance of life and the principles human should hold in a meaningless world. “The Old Man and the Sea” can be taken as a conclusion of his ideas.

Ernest Hemingway

(2) Common theme of his novels: “grace under pressure” (3) “Hemingway heroes” a noble but tragic hero; fighting with the

overwhelming force; though he knows that he will be defeated at last, he decides to act like a hero

Ernest Hemingway

Significance of “Hemingway heroes”: restoring the human dignity in the 20th cen

tury