After some pondering, I decided that it was finally time to read some Hemingway. He was considered one of the best writers of the twentieth century, but I had to decide for myself. As you may or may not know, I love Fitzgerald and Poe, so he had some tough competition. I started with a simple short story, A Clean, Well- Lighted Place. I have to admit, the story had little impact on me and it would be easily forgotten (just like Faulkner). The story had no plot and it was good that it was short because I would have just stopped reading. But, as I thought about the story and did some research on Hemingway, I began to like it more and more. During my research, I discovered that Hemingway committed suicide. Also, I discovered that his father, brother, sister, and daughter also committed suicide. Upon finding this information, I began to feel to him. How could you live when you know that many of your family members took their own lives. I decided to take this information one step further and linked it to this short story. In my opinion, the old man is Hemingway. He has a feeling of nothingness and is blind to the world. Nobody cares for him and the only thing Hemingway has are his writing skills. The only thing the old man has is the bar. I also found it very coincidental that the old man had a drinking problem because Hemingway also had a drinking problem. This raises a question, did Hemingway tell his own story? From my point of view, Hemingway is a close fourth behind Hurston. Here's the Stats:
1. Fitzgerald
2. Poe
3. Hurston
4. Hemingway
thought you might enjoy this Hemingway quote:
ReplyDelete"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use."
I have a biography at my desk, if you are interested