Ernest Hemingway Sexism Essay

Ernest Hemingway is among the most unmatched of American authors. In his works, he is often said to focus on gender roles, especially those of men. Hemingway often created characters that showed the characteristics that he believed made a boy into a man. However, these characteristics are not gender-specific, and could very well apply to women as well. This collection of characteristics became the Hemingway Code Hero. The Hemingway Code Hero, more commonly referred to as the Code Hero, was an embodiment of male prowess. Most of Hemingway’s characters failed to live up to this almost impossible standard, however, all of his characters are capable of

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

Conventional sexual normative values for males typically include an emphasis of attributes that include self-reliance, dominance, assertion, and a healthy appetite for heterosexual behavior. By contrast, those that apply to females usually include a submissiveness and dependency that is all too oftentimes easily exploited by men. In this respect, the body of literature analyzed within this paper--Sandra Cisneros' "Bien Pretty" and "Anguiano Religious Articles" in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, as well as Junot Diaz's "Drown" and "Aguantando"--is demonstrative of these truths as an examination of the characterizations and storylines readily demonstrates. However, what is most noteworthy about Cisneros and Diaz's tales is that these authors also have a penchant for deliberately subverting the typical gender roles associated with each sex, particular those of male characters. In these instances, male characters forsake their traditional assertiveness and dominance and become objectified in ways that are usually reserved for female characters and women in general. In these instances, the authors present a fascinating dichotomy that appears incongruent in its depiction of manhood, for the simple fact that these portraits of male characters combine conventional male attributes with an objectification that is usually reserved for women.

3. Through Hemingway’s Multi-part claim and the changing of different perspectives to show how Margaret is characterized as a manipulative women.

John Steinbeck’s highly acclaimed Of Mice and Men is a classic American novella that paints a depressingly realistic portrait of America during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In this short read, Steinbeck tackles many issues that plagued the country during that time. His purpose in writing Of Mice and Men was to criticize some of those issues, such as sexism, the poor treatment of people with mental disabilities, and the facade of the American Dream.

Gender roles are undeniably a fundamental topic of critique in literature, particularly since expected gender roles have evolved in recent years. More importantly, the transcendence of these gender expectations indicates the possibility for transformation and increasing liberation in society. History explores many different stages for the sexes and their respective roles, from traditional anti-feminist times in which certain roles were strictly enforced, to more modern beliefs entailing free will and a lack of restrictions. In spite of this progress, there are always those who expedite the process while there are others that hinder development from occurring, even when it is necessary. Literary works in particular serve as a showcase

There are countless times that women have been shown or portrayed in a negative light, whether it be in books, movies, or anything media related. This can basically be summed up by the word “stereotype” which has been used many times in the past years. Sadly, women have a set of stereotypes that many people believe, that really portrays them in a negative way. Ernest Hemingway portrays a certain set of stereotypes of women as well, through many of his stories including “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Cat in the Rain”. Hemingway portrays women as being unfit to face the realities of the real world. He suggests this by showing women as overly emotional, self absorbed, and unable to make competent decisions whether it be under pressure, or just in general.

American literature is great source for understanding how society defines gender roles and what drives the power struggles between men and women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, deals with the limitations imposed on women by the political and social institutions of her time. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, a short story by Ernest Hemingway, illustrate the difficulties men faced during the early days of feminism between the first and second world wars. American playwright Tennessee Williams’ famous play “A Streetcar Named Desire” tells a story of how the tensions of life and unconditional submission one women made her a victim of her own destiny. The conflicts between men and women described in these works of American literature are directly caused by the societal roles assigned to the genders.

As long as sexism exists within our society, it will exist within our literature. Depicting women as the submissive and therefore passive gender has been an age old occurrence within cultures. This is reflected in many aspects of societies from pop culture to history. A key contributor to the continuation of this is the unreliable, biased and sometimes outright manipulative narrative of these texts. This narrative, subjective in it’s art, not only affects how female roles play out in a plot but also heavily influence how the audience views the power dynamic between genders. Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, James K. Baxter’s He Waiata Mo Te Kare, and Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer all female characters have been passive victims or objects to their circumstance.

   Ernest Hemingway has been greatly criticized for a supposed hatred of women that some feel is evident in his writings. One of the primary books that critics believe shows this misogynistic attitude is A Farewell To Arms. It is counterproductive to interpret the book using such a narrow focus because the author is dealing with much more profound themes. Hemingway is not concerned with the theme of gender equality, but rather with the greater themes of the inherent struggle of life and the inevitability of death.

A feminist lens looks at the relationships between men and women. It specifically focuses on the portrayal of women within the work of literature. It attempts to analyze how women have been affected by men and their actions. It not only works to show how women have been marginalized and suppressed by society, but also how they have been privileged. However, a “feminist lens” mustn't solely focus on femininity. It also examines the role of “masculinity” in the portrayal of men .The “feminist lens” accomplishes all of this in the pursuit of analyzing gender boundaries and norms (Delahoyde 1).

In the short story “Indian Camp”, by Ernest Hemingway, many controversies arise about the idea of feminism in the text. Feminism is a general term used to describe advocating women’s rights socially, politically, and making equal rights to those of men. Feminist criticism is looked through a “lens” along the line of gender roles in literature, the value of female characters within the text, and interpreting the perspective from which the text is written. Many of Hemingway’s female characters display anti-feminist attributes due to the role that women play or how they are referred to within a text by him or other characters. There are many assumptions that go along with the

Also, Hemingway was considered to be “vitally concerned with re-establishing what he felt were the proper rules of man and women in their relationship to each other” (Fiedler, 305). This is shown in his portrayal of women in

In “Hills Like White Elephants,” author Ernest Hemingway gives a sample of the conflict between an adult male and an adult female. This conflict symbolizes the eternal conflict between men, women, and all human beings. By using a plethora of symbolism and imagery in “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway can convey how the two main characters struggle with the conflicts still found between all men and women. Examples of such conflict include the main characters of the short story dealing with the difference in their objectives, their own addictive personalities, and how the difference in objectives eventually destroys the man and the girl’s relationship towards the end of the story.

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.