The Code Heroes of A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls
In Ernest Hemingway's fiction, there is something known as the "Hemingway Hero". This term is usually applied to the male protagonist in his works. The Hemingway hero illustrates a variety of traits, ranging from heavy drinking to his role as a leader among the characters with whom he interacts. Traits of this hero also resemble the personal characteristics of Hemingway himself, and the hero usually finds himself in similar predicaments Hemingway faced in his life. Two Hemingway heroes, Robert Jordan from For Whom the Bell Tolls and Frederic Henry from A Farewell to Arms, exhibit the traits established in Hemingway's heroic code. Given the presence of war in each novel, the two heroes display leadership in some form many times. Jordan and Henry also mature to realize that they hold the capacity to love as each develops an intimate relationship with a woman they meet. Just as Ernest Hemingway aided the injured in the Great War, Frederic Henry drives an ambulance for the Italian army in the same war. And although Hemingway did not fight in the Spanish Civil War as Robert Jordan does, he wrote newspaper articles covering the war in order to publicize the Republican struggle. The hero Hemingway creates in his fiction serves several purposes. Through his heroes, Hemingway idealizes his beliefs about life and how men should act as well as events in his own life.
Since Hemingway's time, literary critics have defined his heroic code to include the following: The Hemingway hero does not believe in the afterlife, is brave, strong and seeks pleasure, thinks cowardliness is disgraceful, believes in grace, courage and discipline, thinks de...
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...as collecting important information about the bridge for Robert.
Frederic Henry, on the other hand, has little respect for discipline, and intern, displays hardly any of his own. Henry begins the war helping the Italian Army, serving as an ambulance driver. He receives an injury to his leg, and after recovering, deserts the army when he becomes separated from the rest of the army during a retreat......
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.
---. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968.
Ernest Hemingway in His Time. July, 1999. Universtiy of Delaware Library, Special Collections Department. 29 Dec. 20002
Flashback. July, 1999. The Atlantic Monthly. 29 Dec. 2000
Hemingway Campfire. February, 2000. Hemingway Nantucket Campfire. 5 Jan. 2002
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.
Hemingway refuses to romanticize his character. 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 such people, and it is unrealistic to put sublime thoughts into their heads.
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
Meter, M. An Analysis of the Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway. Texas: Texas College of Arts and Industries, 2003.
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.
McCandless is a very independent person, a person with high hopes, that has a lot of courage, and is a very brave man for going out by himself in the wild of Alaska of the Stampede Trail. Chris McCandless had a lot of courage on going to Alaska by himself at a young age. While Chris was at any city or anybody’s house, he was ready to go to Alaska. But while he was there, close to the end of his life, he left a note on the back of the bus saying, “S.O.S I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here i am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of god, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return by evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?” Chris McCandless was by himself at the time. He shows his courage because while by himself, he went back out even though he was near death. He went out for food. Food for his health. That shows how much courage he had for his trip. Chris McCandless encouraged many young men to ...
... off exhibition across her mother chest. The through Pearl, the letter whispers to Hesters conciouosness that she cannot be released from her sin, the letter will not allow it, and neither will Pearl. The letter has become a part of Hester, it is no longer an act that she was involved in, it has come to define her as a person in Pearls point of view.
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.
...elligence to help him last an extended period of time in the Alaskan wilderness. In truth, McCandless was someone who wanted to find himself. He wanted to get away from a life in which he could not find fulfilment, which is something many others would be able to relate to. Although most people would not go to such extremes to find fulfilment, everyone has a different way of finding happiness and going after what their heart truly desires. For McCandless, his desire was to live out in the wild. Unfortunately, this man of great character did not succeed in getting out alive. However, that does not change the fact that he tried. McCandless knew what he wanted for himself and he persisted, regardless of the obstacles he faced. He put an incredible amount of effort into accomplishing his goals and never gave up, and that is why Christopher McCandless is someone to admire.
" The Hemingway Review. 15.1 (Fall 1995): p. 27. Literature Resource Center -.
...emselves. They endure mosquitoes and rain and tough walking and bad river crossings and the possibility of bears. The burden the pilgrims carry to the bus is so heavy, laden with their frailties and hopes and desires, with their lives that don’t quite satisfy. Well, so many of them are young, and they’re lost, somehow, just as he was.” What makes Chris McCandless such a hero to young men is that he is easily relatable to those young men. As Neal Karlinsky writes of Chris McCandless,“McCandless tramped his way across North America determined to live completely free of the trappings of modern society. He was intoxicated by nature and the idea of a great Alaskan adventure — to survive in the bush totally on his own. In his last postcard to a friend, he wrote: "I now walk into the wild."
15 Feb. 2003. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/books/1999/hemingway/stories/biography/part1/index.html. Stanford, Judith A. & Co. Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Waldhorn, Arthur. Ernest Hemingway: A Collection of Criticism (Contemporary Studies in Literature). Chicago: Syracuse University Press, 1978.
Hemingway characterizes his heroes as people with strength, courage, and bravery, but even heroes have their flaws. For example, Frederic Henry, the protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, survives an artillery bombardment that kills one of his own men and badly injures him. Hemingway shows the strength of this character through his survival of the bombardment and full recovery of his wounds. Hemingway portrays Frederic as a hero through this strength. In addition, Fredric, being fully aware of the dangers from both the enemy and the Italian's, who mistake him and his drivers for German's, kill one of them, and then threaten to execute Frederic, who escapes. In this daring escape, Frederic presents his courage and bravery in a dangerous situation. Hemingway demonstrates that although one of Frederic's men dies, he is still courageous in that his escape was successful. Frederic Henry's potential as a hero is shown by Hemingway's illustration of events that depict Frederic's use of his strength, his courage, and his bravery (Lewis 46).
The novel also highlights the passionate relationship between Henry and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse in Italy. Henry’s insight into the war and his intense love for Catherine emphasize that love and war are the predominant themes in the novel and these themes contribute to bringing out the implicit and explicit meaning of the novel. Being a part of the Italian army, Henry is closely involved with the war and has developed an aversion to the war. Henry’s association with the war has also made him realise that war is inglorious and the sacrifices made in war are meaningless. Specifically, Henry wants the war to end because he is disillusioned by the war and knows that war is not as glorious as it is made up to be.