Ernest Hemingway Biography Essay

Ernest Hemingway Essay: Introduction

Ernest Hemingway was born in 1889, Illinois, U.S. He was a journalist and Nobel Prize-winner writer, and he was considered one of the most important modernist writers of the 20th century. He wrote many short stories and novels, which commonly included war and counterwar themes. His journalist identity affected his writing style, which was simple, straightforward, and lack of fancy words and long details. This paper focuses on Ernest Hemingway's artistic identity, his works, influences, and lastly, opinions about him. His works influenced many others who came after him because his writing style was unique and straightforward. Also, Lost Generation artists were influenced by him, and he was influenced by them. He lived a stunning life; he traveled all around the world and witnessed the most important wars of the 20th century. Today, we consider him as one of the greatest writers in American literature. After all, his novels reflected the different societies that faced wars and revolutions.

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As mentioned earlier, he was born in Illinois, his father was a doctor, and during his childhood, he was educated in public schools (Young, 2020). When he finished high school, he did not go to a university; instead, he went to Kansas and started to work as a journalist at Star. Then, when the United States entered World War I, he wanted to join the army, but he was rejected multiple times because of his eye.

However, he found a way to attend the war and became an ambulance driver at American Red Cross, and a year later, he was injured on the Austro-Italian front (Young, 2020). His experiences in the I.WW affected his perspective about the world. Therefore, in the postwar years, he published his first collection of short stories and a novel called In Our Time (1924) and The Sun Also Rises (1926). During this period, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Gregorio Fuentes, and Ezra Pound encouraged him to write non-journalistic works. After publishing Sun Also Rises, he got credit from many artists. However, among other Lost Generation writers, he had more close friendship with Gregorio Fuentes, and he inspired him to write the most successful novel, The Old Man and The Sea (“Who Influenced,” 2014).

Until The Second World War, he published several short storybooks and two novels. He was the master of short story fiction, and he influenced both United States and British literature. As a journalist, he found a chance to practice his writing skills, and the nature of journalistic works affected his writing style. In other words, his journalist identity is the main reason why he wrote outstanding and straightforward stories. Therefore, his books had simple, plain language, a lack of unnecessary details, and poetic writing. Also, repetition and lack of dialogue were characteristics of his novels because they did not take many words to get a strong message across (Ezzaki, 2020). After all, his work helped him to travel to different countries and provide an opportunity to know different cultures.

As mentioned above, he witnessed the most important wars and revolutions in the 20th century. For example, during the Civil War of Spain, he traveled there four times. During the Japanese occupation of China, he went there to report what was happening. Also, he traveled to Africa several times. Being a journalist was a great influence for him because his novels were usually influenced by his life experiences. For instance, in A Farewell to Arms (1929), an American lieutenant falls in love with an English Nurse, this novel was based on his I.WW experience because after he got injured, he fell in love with a nurse and asked her to marry him, but she did not accept (Young, 2020). Therefore, A Farewell to Arms did not have a happy ending because the couple could not be united.

He never hesitated to tell his opinion about the counterwar because in the 20th century, people witnessed many wars, and they constantly live in a world that included many deaths. Thus, he both observed and witnessed the wars, the environments, and the people. Therefore, he was excellent at writing books that had war and revolution themes. Most of his books deserved credit, but Old Man and The Sea (1952) and For Whom the Bells Tolls (1940) were his most famous works. More specifically, with the Old Man and The Sea (1952), he won a Pulitzer Prize in fiction, and in 1954, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature (Young, 2020). With For Whom the Bells Tolls (1940), he revealed the Spain Civil War.

I read, For Whom the Bells Tolls; it was stunning because, during the war times, there is no hope for love, and soldiers know that they are going to die, but they never hesitate to complete the mission as it critical for the future society. By all means, Ernest Hemingway was one of the greatest modernist writers of the 20th century. He lived an extraordinary life and managed the reflect war spirit and environment. However, after seeing so many wars, and revolutions his psychology was not great, and he was depressed. He shot himself with a shotgun and died in 1960. Committing suicide is not something admirable, but I admire his artistic identity and his works.

Ernest Hemingway Essay: Conclusion

Consequently, this paper focuses on Ernest Hemingway’s artistic identity, his works, influences, and opinions about him. He was born in 1889 in Illinois, the U.S., which was one of the horrible centuries to live because many brutal wars started in this century. He attended wars as a reporter and ambulance driver. He witnessed many deaths, which lead him to depression in the last years of his life. He was influenced by Lost Generation artists, and he influenced many artists who came after him. He had a simple and straightforward writing style which was one of the most recognizable characteristics of his artistic identity. After all, his novels reflected the different societies that faced wars and revolutions.

References

Ezzaki, Z. (2020). Contributions to Literature. Ernest Hemingway: A Legend of the Lost Generation.

Who Influenced Ernest Hemingway? prezi.com. (2014, December 30).

Young, P. (2020). Ernest Hemingway. Encyclopædia Britannica.