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.
In his vast collection of masterpieces, Ernest Hemingway uses his own characteristics to set a moral code for his various heroes. This sportsman like code is based on the admiration of the physical virtues of courage and endurance. While not necessary for sustaining society, the code conforms the characters to one set of characteristics (McCaffery 237). One key element of this code is stoic endurance in the face of calamity. Hemingway's code heroes posses a grin-and-bear it attitude even in the most dire of tragedies and bounce back seemingly unaffected (McCaffery 237). Often Hemingway tests the moral of the character in confrontations with death, which frequently directs his plots to violent situations. The very idea of living in Hemingway's imaginative world is a test of endurance, but through his cod heroes he portrays the idea that perseverance through tragedy will result in triumph.
The Hemingway code embodies principles that govern the actions of Hemingway’s main protagonists in his novels. They are “rules which if completed would become...the manual of conduct'; (Waldhorn 26). As Arthur Waldhorn says “the Hemingway code does not ask that a hero be fearless or entertain illusions about refuge or escape. But it insists that he discipline and control his dread and, above all, that he behave with unobtrusive though unmistakable dignity'; (26). “The code that does concern Hemingway and his tyros is the process of learning how to make one’s passive vulnerabilities (to the dangers and unpredictabilities of life) into a strong rather than weak position, and how to exact the maximum amount of reward (honor, dignity) out of these encounters'; (Rovit 92). In advance, a character knows what is expected of him in the game of life, although he does not know what combination of challenges will be imposed on him at any one given time (91). Hemingway’s belief in the freedom of the individual to make responsible choices was paid for at the painful expense of having to constantly wage battle with the unpredictable future. Because a character does not know what will happen to him, he must endure whatever challenges are thrown upon him. This ability to react to a variety of differing challenges is only acquired through training and experience of each unique challenge (91).
Americans were reading books before the first printing press was even invented. As people were reading, writers were forming. Ernest Hemingway was a man with a unique imagination, which was obsessed with violence, but with that and his fascination for the act of courage in a dangerous situation, it served as a basis for his most memorable books.
Hemingway’s father was having a rough time during this portion of Hemingway’s life. His father was suffereing from diabetes. He also had some financial misfortune and chronic depression. This all ended in 1928 when a self-inflicted pistol shot ended his life. This is when Hemingway was just starting to see the material rewards of his developing literary career. Hemingway did not have a very good childhood. Although his youth was bad, and unhappy, Hemingway viewed it as an essential artistic and personal resource for the development of an individual ‘heroic code.’
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.
From the time Ernest Hemingway became a renowned author, his works, as well as his life, have been analyzed by many. Under such scrutiny, many aspects of Hemingway’s works and life experiences have been in question to the realities and fallacies, which he laid forth. Much of Hemingway’s life, especially his time volunteering as an ambulance driver in Europe, has been in question to the true validity of his myth as a true adventurer and hero. However, as I have found, much of the mythology surrounding Hemingway is very true indeed, which leads me to believe that he did not embellish his life but rather used his experiences to create some of the greatest works of literature to be written throughout the twentieth century.
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist and short-story writer, whose style was characterized by crisp, laconic dialogue, and emotional understatements. Hemingway’s writing and his personal life extended a profound influence on American writers of his time. Many of his works are regarded as classics of American literature and some have been made into motion pictures.
The first element of this code is an emphasis on the value of self-discipline. Hemingway, a character in the novel, says, "Up in that room I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it was good and severe discipline" (12). This determination to discipline oneself is a value that grows out of a man's inner nature. Unlike the values of loyalty, honesty, and courage, that may waver and finally succumb to outside pressures, a man's self-discipline will always remain constant; it is, therefore, given much importance throughout the novel. Another example of the incorporation of self-discipline into daily life, can be seen through the drinking patterns of the male characters. Through their actions, they convey the idea that it is fine to drink an immense amount; however, the man who cannot hold his liquor does not possess enough self-discipline. Hemingway proves himself to be a man who is always in control of his own faculties because he never allows himself to be drunk.