Honorable, Courageous, and Enduring: Hemingway’s Code Hero
Throughout his short stories, Hemingway continually exemplifies attributes in his characters which display his own ideals of a “Code Hero”. His stories contain repetitive character development, as one of the main characters always demonstrates some heroic trait. Different from the knight in shining armor, and yet the same, Hemingway displays the characteristics of a generic hero, in his own abstract ways. He defines his code hero as “a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful”. The main characters of Hemingway’s short stories demonstrate honor, courage, and endurance, in
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In Hemingway's “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, the main character, Macomber, demonstrates great endurance in the hunt. Following the incident with the lion, Macomber, is relentless in his quest to hunt. He stops at nothing to prove himself following his embarrassment, as seen when shooting the buffaloes. Macomber “aimed and shot again, then again, then again, and the bullets, all of them hitting”(SHLFM 146), thus demonstrating his will to succeed. Even after facing embarrassment with the lion, Macomber was relentless in his quest and continued to shoot until he had completed his hunt, thus displaying endurance. The doctor, in the short story “Indian Camp”, also demonstrates endurance. The doctor stopped at nothing to complete the procedure and paid no attention to the distractions of his surroundings. He even ignored the mother’s screams by saying “her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important”(IC 16) showing his concentration to the task at hand. He showed focus and endurance while treating the woman, even in the face of many distractions. The doctor completed the treatment by “feeling exalted and talkative as football players are in the dressing room after a game”(IC 18). The comparison of the surgery to a football game represents the endurance it takes. As with any sport, it takes not just skill, but endurance to finish the entire game. This endurance was demonstrated by the doctor through the surgery. The endurance of the doctor acts to support Hemingway’s ideas of a code
In the short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway, the idea of a code hero, affects the reader's view of the characters. First is Francis Macomber. He does not appear as a hero immediately but later blossoms into one after facing hardships on his safari. Then we have Margaret Macomber, his wife. She is the opposite of Macomber, starting out looking like a code hero then deteriorating that image as her husband grows stronger. Robert Wilson a hunting guide Macomber hiers for the safari is show immediately as a hero and stays that way wavering only slightly at the end of the story. Through the use of diction and syntax, Hemingway develops characters that have qualities of a code hero.
The Code Hero is present in the majority of Hemingway's novels. Even the young man in Hills Like White Elephants contained many of the characteristics of the Code Hero such as free-willed, individualist, and travel. The individualism comes out in his desire to not have a child.
One observation that can be made on Hemingway’s narrative technique as shown in his short stories is his clipped, spare style, which aims to produce a sense of objectivity through highly selected details. Hemingway refuses to romanticize his characters. Being “tough” people, such as boxers, bullfighters, gangsters, and soldiers, they are depicted as leading a life more or less without thought. The world is full of s...
In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume II. Edited by Paul Lauter et al. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991: 1208-1209. Hemingway, Ernest. A.
Ernest Hemingway is today known as one of the most influential American authors of the 20th century. This man, with immense repute in the worlds of not only literature, but also in sportsmanship, has cast a shadow of control and impact over the works and lifestyles of enumerable modern authors and journalists. To deny his clear mastery over the English language would be a malign comparable to that of discrediting Orwell or Faulkner. The influence of the enigma that is Ernest Hemingway will continue to be shown in works emulating his punctual, blunt writing style for years to come.
Throughout the 20th century there were many influential pieces of literature that would not only tell a story or teach a lesson, but also let the reader into the author’s world. Allowing the reader to view both the positives and negatives in an author. Ernest Hemingway was one of these influential authors. Suffering through most of his life due to a disturbingly scarring childhood, he expresses his intense mental and emotional insecurities through subtle metaphors that bluntly show problems with commitment to women and proving his masculinity to others.
Ernest Hemingway’s code hero can be defined as “a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful." The Hemingway Code Hero embodies specific traits shown throughout the plot of a story. In the series of short stories “The Nick Adams Stories” by Ernest Hemingway, the protagonist Nick Adams, slowly begins to develop as a code hero throughout the transversal of the plot. Adams is able to demonstrate courage, honor, and stoicism, while tolerating the chaos and stress of his crazy world.
middle of paper ... ... This story supplies the reader with insight into Hemingway's personality and controversial themes. Works Cited Baker, Carlos. Heard.
This book (the last lecture), is filled with awe-inspiring circumstances. Of course life can come with some hurdles or challenges, but the tendency for Randy to handle his medical situation with phenomenal valor, is an outstanding qualities that shows leadership and focus on what matters to him, his family, and vision before he moved on to the next realm.
Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway's novels is the concept popularly known as the "Hemingway hero", or “code hero”, an ideal character readily accepted by American readers as a "man's man". In The Sun Also Rises, four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some form of relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett plans to marry her fiancée for superficial reasons, completely ruins one man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her relationships occur in a period of months, as Brett either accepts or rejects certain values or traits of each man. Brett, as a dynamic and self-controlled woman, and her four love interests help demonstrate Hemingway's standard definition of a man and/or masculinity. Each man Brett has a relationship with in the novel possesses distinct qualities that enable Hemingway to explore what it is to truly be a man. The Hemingway man thus presented is a man of action, of self-discipline and self-reliance, and of strength and courage to confront all weaknesses, fears, failures, and even death.
The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway; edited by Scott Donaldson; Cambridge U. P.; New York, NY; 1996
Earnest Hemingway’s work gives a glimpse of how people deal with their problems in society. He conveys his own characteristics through his simple and “iceberg” writing style, his male characters’ constant urge to prove their masculinity.
Baker, Sheridan. "Hemingway?s Two-Hearted River." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays. Ed. Jackson, J. Benson. Durham: Duke UP, 1975. 158.
Frequently throughout Hemingway's use of heroes there are two behaviors or types of heroes that he uses, these are the "Hemingway Hero" and the "Code Hero". The Hemingway hero is usually a masculine man who drinks, loves hunts and bullfights, and has war injuries.
A Hemingway Code Hero is a character from an Ernest Hemingway novel that follows a particular pattern of how he or she conducts life on a day to day basis. Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms lives with a respect for honor and courage as a Code Hero should. Catherine Barkley is the original code hero of the novel. She has all of the traits of a Hero, and implements them onto Frederic as he matures throughout the story. Catherine’s three main traits that define her as a Hemingway Code Hero are her values of human relationships over materialism, her idealism, and her grace under pressure; she is fearful but not afraid to die.