The short story of “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot” in Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time could be read as a homosexual man attempting to adapt to the stereotypical masculine male figure and through Hemmingway’s paradoxical or ironic meaning underneath the writing, specific deliberate word choice, and use of historical feminine and masculine symbols it becomes clear that this man, Mr. Elliot, is failing to keep up the masculine persona. In the early 20th century, which was around the time Hemingway wrote In Our Time, sexuality was still a question mark. Most people did not know much about any sexuality that differed from heterosexuality and anyone that fit into the category of “other than heterosexual” was furthering away from "normality" (Domotor 2). There …show more content…
Elliot” to display the struggle of Mr. Elliot’s masculinity. Ernest Hemingway was known for the idea of the “iceberg theory,” which “in Hemingway's narrative refers to hard facts staying on the surface, or above water, in the same way as an iceberg” (Domotor 7). By omitting certain words and not deliberately stating every detail, readers are forced to look for subtle meanings underneath the words. Hemingway, “controls the reader's understanding of events by forcing him/her to integrate the importance of the withheld information” (Domotor 8). This is where irony comes to play, the short story begins with “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot tried very hard to have a baby” (Hemingway 85). Domotor suggests that the use of the word “hard” “destroys the image of perseverance and creates that of desperation instead” (Domotor 3). The irony is if the couple was trying “very hard” they would have actually had a baby. If fertility and the ability to conceive are looked as a man displaying his masculinity, by Mr. Elliot trying hard and failing, it means he has failed to embody a characteristic of masculinity. The story continues describing that “They tried as often as Mr. Elliot could stand it” (Hemingway 85). Most of the time the use of irony is meant to comically poke fun at an issue to uncover it true meaning. The fact that Mr. Elliot could not stand it, “it” meaning sexual intercourse with his own wife, is comedic because sexual intercourse to any other heterosexual man is tied to pleasure, but for Mr. Elliot it is like a job he cannot stand. So, Mr. Elliot looks at “reproduction [as] another duty” (Domotor 13), questioning his heterosexuality and masculinity, because it does not seem like he is attracted to his
Throughout the 1950’s, the United States belonged to the Leave It To Beaver era. Families were structured around a strong, hard working father and a wonderful homemaker mother. Children were brought up with solid ideologies on what society expects from them and were warned about living a different and dangerous life. Only one-year separates Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room from there publishing dates during this decade of unwavering beliefs. These texts were seen as extremely controversial during their time due to their themes of homosexuality. Sexual orientation was an awkward topic during such a “to the book” time period and these texts pushed the limits, making them remarkable and memorable works. Both Tennessee Williams and James Baldwin explore the panic men experience while trying to comprehend what sexual orientation they belong to and highlight the masculine gay man. These texts also examine the woman’s role in the mist of it all.
n the book In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway, rather than him describing the setting and characters, Hemingway uses vivid stories to give a series of impressions and memories that may at first confuse the reader, but eventually adds a deeper understanding of what Hemingway is trying to convey through the repetition of birth and death . The author uses repetition of the cycle of life [beginning and end] to convey masculinity as it relates to empathy and hope through Nick’s character development throughout the book. Nick’s father often demonstrates masculinity and empathy which is unlike the other male characters. As Nick matures throughout the book, he witnesses traditional male roles being challenged by his father which ultimately provides a deeper understanding of human nature.
Hemingway has extremely strong opinions on homosexuality, which Gertrude Stein attempts to dissuade by convincing him that those who attempt to assault young boys are not well in their heads. While Stein attempts this, Hemingway proclaims that because homosexuality exists, “you [carry] a knife and would use it when you were in the company of tramps when you were a boy in the days when wolves was not a slang term for men obsessed by the pursuit of women” (Hemingway 16). It seems that Hemingway does not realize that, when objectifying women, he turns into one of the wolves of which he is so afraid. However, Hemingway maintains his fear of homosexuality; he “ridicules an effeminate homosexual named Hal, satirizes Fitzgerald’s sexual uncertainties, and professes disgust at the lesbian practices of Stein and Toklas” (Kennedy 187). Hemingway is horrified by homosexuals, because he is afraid that he will be objectified by homosexual men just as he objectifies the women in his own life. He believes that leering after unsuspecting partners is only okay when he is an active participant; he is just afraid of being objectified and therefore, forced into an action against his own will. However, “homosexuality disturbs Hem, less because it involves alternate erotic practices than because it subvert his fundamental assumptions about sex, gender, and desire” (Kennedy 191). He believes that men are only right to objectify, not to be objectified. He believes that the gender and sexual
Hemingway uses short, harsh sentences in the excerpt from In Our Time in order to enhance the tone of finality of the six ministers’ death. The author introduces the paragraph with the fact that “they shot the six ministers” and concludes the paragraph with the same action of “fire[ing] the first volley.” The “bookends” of action included at both the beginning and the end contribute to the idea that there is absolutely no way for the ministers to escape their fate. Their deaths are final; they are shot and none of the setting described in the middle of the paragraph can change that fact. In fact, the description of the “wet dead leaves,” the “pools of water,” and the brief sentence “it rained hard” seem to support that fatal fixedness. The
In this article, East Carolina University English professor Dr. Margaret Bauer makes the claim that one cannot solely rely on the reputation on the writer in order to fully comprehend the meaning of a certain text. This is the precisely the case with Ernest Hemingway as he was well-known to scholars to have his short stories filled with male-chauvinist characters either abusing or disregarding weak and helpless women. However, Bauer, a professor of English and women’s studies, believes that the characterization of Hemingway as an abuser and having a blatant disregard of women is almost entirely created by the scholars and readers of his stories. With an analysis of Hemingway’s “Indian Camp” and “Hills Like White Elephants”, Bauer attempts to bring her own feminist perspective to Hemingway’s notoriously misogynistic texts to prove that there are more to his female characters than there is on the surface and to possibly emasculate his reputation of portraying women as powerless and one-dimensional characters.
In the summer of 1917 while the sun beat down in Kansas City, Kansas, Ernest Hemingway took his first official job a writer at the Kansas City Star (Antonacci). Hemingway describes the job explaining “ And the Kansas City Star happened to be, in those years, the beau ideal of every newspaperman in American” (Antonacci). There the writing had to be direct and straight to the point. The paper didn’t have time for frilly literary techniques that required facts and ideas to be wrapped up in adjectives and imagery. This task caused
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
A first example of masculinity is at the start of the book, when Frederic and his friend are sitting outside a bawdy house drinking as they watch the onlookers pass by.Throughout the book, Hemingway implicitly writes that women lean on men, how women enter the story, impact the male protagonist and then leave the story. An example of this is how Catherine enters the story, she’s immediately attracted to Henry and even goes as far as to praise him. After she influences him to make a few decisions, whether that be pushing him to move to Switzerland
When people fall in love, many are innocently drawn into the idea of perfection in relationships without believing any catastrophic events will occur. Society believes that love can conquer any limitations in life, but Ernest Hemingway’s novels, A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, defeat these stereotypes. Ernest Hemingway’s characters are depicted as strong-featured, harsh men who experience death and tragedy willingly. In A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway expands on his male characters’ personalities. In his novels, he has created these men with an outward façade to hide their emotional turmoil within. He depicts his stereotypical, “macho men” as protagonists who have suffered great loss. His men have suffered and endured violence, death and sadness. Specifically, the protagonists have been exposed to war and tragedy. Conversely, the women have suffered and experienced sadness as well; such as rape, and murder of their family members. Hemmingway’s women are portrayed as unstable women who find a safe haven in seemingly strong men, but their relationships are far from a “safe haven”. These two timeless novels follow the lives of women and men who have been exposed to unimaginable violence and tragedy. For example, Catherine, Maria, and Pilar whose experiences in tragedy and suffering allow them to connect with their men, who have also experienced a mutual tragedy.
Through the precise use of diction between the woman (“jig”) and the man, Hemingway reveals how a lack of knowing someone can lead to emotional dismay. Concise diction in a relationship means, conversation only scratches the surface and the two “lovers” don’t truly know about the other person’s emotions. The story is full of short, one-line phrases of conversation between the couple about trivial things. They converse about the “lovely hills” and the “simple operation,” yet they never ask each other about their feelings. The lack of in depth communication of opinions creates a tension filled atmosphere that just keeps building up and up as the story continues. The “simple operation,” an abortion, is seen by the couple as the issue they need to resolve, however, the man, who can’t handle the responsibility, instead of talking it through with his “lover” chooses to manipulate her. He tries to convince jig, who is easily pushed-over as she is stuck by lust and will do anything to keep the relationship together. She doesn’t care to sacrifice her happiness for his, rather she fears that if she doesn’t go through with the operation, he will leave her, she is indecisive and relies on the man to make many decisions. The man deceives
Analysis of all of Hemingway 's prose reveals many themes. Two themes though stand out in the four works reviewed for this paper. One of them is that the main character (usually the hero) must assert the self, has a fear of failure, and attacks those things which threaten the successful assertion of the self. "Assertion of the self in the stories usually takes the form of the assertion of the masculine principle." In Green, Hemingway exerts his masculinity by
Completely opposite from Hemingway’s vision of an ideal woman is his vision of an ideal male. His ideal males are seen in almost every
There are many hidden and sub-surface meanings in life. Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is no exception to that fact. As the title of the novel suggests, the novel is about the rise of a new generation that breaks away from the societal conventions of the previous generation. Though The Sun Also Rises seems to be simply about the rise of a new generation, a closer look at the relationship between Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley suggests a queer relationship produced out of gender role nonconformity. Their relationship enables one to see the blurring of the lines that divide the conventional gender roles.
In human history, the qualities of man have not changed drastically, but something changed recently. The women have earned more and more power, which is a threat for the men, and society has changed for the worse. In his story “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Ernest Hemingway uses setting and characterization to address the attributes of a real man.
In the novel there’s a lot of events that happen that shows a theme of weakened masculinity which Ernest Hemingway explores through out, “The Sun Also Rises”. The novel revolves around individuals that do not know what to do with their lives. These post war characters carry the same life style everyday of their life. The story focuses around Jake Barnes a war veteran, Lady Brett Ashley a beautiful British women and Robert Cohn a Jewish that still believes in the old values. Hemingway uses these major characters to portray the life of the Lost Generation.