The Life of Ernest Hemingway

  From the day he was born on July twenty-first, eighteen ninety-nine, to his death on July second, nineteen sixty-one, Earnest Hemingway was a renaissance man. Throughout his life he was constantly showing his abilities of excellent reading and writing, as well as abilities almost opposite of those, like hunting and fishing. Even as a young boy he was either outside in the woods or he was writing. For Hemingway he managed to put both together and thus came a few novels that have helped to shape American literature. 

Hemingway’s life started in a Chicago suburb with his father, Clarence Hemingway, who was a local doctor and his mom, Grace Hemingway who was a teacher and opera singer. During his youth summers he was at his famlies’ vacation home next to the great Lake Michigan. In those woods is where Earnest first started hunting, fishing, and expanding his knowledge of nature. These are the very ideas that made him one of the most loved writers of all time. He was always talented at writing, he started writing for his school’s newspaper in middle school and only ended after high school when his writing career began. After graduating from Oak Park and River Forest High School, he wanted a “less-sheltered environment, he did not enter college but went to Kansas City, where he was employed as a reporter for the Star”(Young 1). This small reporting job was just what the young man needed to learn more about writing, as he would never have more than a High School diploma. Even though he loved this job, he always ached to serve in the military, he was repeatedly rejected for service due to blindness in his left eye. Thanks to his persistence at the age of eighteen he became an ambulance driver in WWI for the American Red Cross. Unfortunately, his service was cut short when he was injured and would no longer be allowed to serve. After his recovery he started traveling around the world and began writing novels. 

These trips contribute immensely to his great novels. For example, two of his best works, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Death in the Afternoon were about Spain and the experiences that he had there. Hemingway had the unique ability to go on a trip once and be able to write a novel on it. For example, “a safari he took in 1933-34 in the big-game region of Tanganyika resulted in Green Hills of Africa (1935)” (Young 6). Not only are these extremely detailed but they are also extremely accurate due to his first hand experience. Unfortunately even Hemingway had his shortcomings. During his adult life he had four wives, staying the longest with his last wife Mary Welsh from nineteen forty-six to his death in July of nineteen sixty-one. Many believe that these divorces were due to his constant travel and his drinking problem. Hemingway had three children, only one of them though, Patrick Hemingway, carried on his legacy of being a hunter and an angler.

Hemingway moved around a lot throughout his life, truly showing his lack of contentment and his want to experience everything he could. He stopped at nothing to get these experiences. He was famous for participating in bullfighting in Spain, and Hemingway was so courageous as he “crossed the English Channel with American troops on D-Day”(Young 9). He easily could have just stayed home and not done these incredible things but that just wasn't in his blood, he had to be out there experiencing these things. During his run around the globe, he decided to get an estate in beautiful Havana, Cuba. Only to soon be amidst the Cuban Civil War. The only difference between this war and the others he had experienced, is that for this one nobody could promise him neither protection nor medical attention in case of injury. Finally when this civil war ended he moved out into Idaho, which seemed to fit him better anyway. This was where he lived from nineteen-sixty to his tragic death in nineteen-sixty-one. 

In conclusion, although his life was cut short he will still go down as one of the best American writers of all time, and his awards show it. He was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen fifty-four, and the Pulitzer Prize in nineteen fifty-three, for his novel The Old Man and the Sea. Although he, like many others, graciously accepted these rewards, I believe that the experiences he had throughout his life were more important to him than any award he could ever receive. Earnest Hemingway lived life to the fullest and he never seemed to look back with regrets. Still some may consider it a reckless lifestyle, it suited Hemingway perfectly. This ‘pick-up and go’ lifestyle helped him to write truly amazing works that helped add so much to his writing. Last, Hemingway was truly a renaissance man who was courageous, rugged and yet still sophisticated. 

Emulation of Author

Author's Style

Ernest Hemingway was set in the way he wrote, his settings, characters, and sentence format. His settings and topics mainly revolved around his experiences, as shown in his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. The setting of the novel is set in the Spanish Civil War, which was very accurate as a result of the time he spent there observing the war. As for his characters, in The Old Man and the Sea,   struggles of the Old Man, as he attempts to get the catch of his life, are parallel to the experiences Hemingway had while he was going after game. Lastly, his sentence format and descriptions are both simple and direct. His utilization of short sentences can cause drama, especially in tense situations when he is describing the characters thoughts. When he describes things, he makes it very simple and straightforward, causing no confusion for the reader. 

Emulation - Excerpt from Novel 

Tom Johnson (66 years old) and his 10 year old orphaned grandson, Bo Johnson, go hunting for the ultimate trophy, a grizzly bear in the Alaskan mountains. 

Ok, the wind's finally blowing south. We can set up here and hunt the valley below. “Set up the tents, we’ll rest here tonight.”

“Yes Sir” replied Bo.

As I sat down for a second I looked around at the beauty of nature, then at Bo, hard at work. Vivid green eyes and a stocky frame, just like his father. The fall of a branch brought me back to reality from connecting the seemingly endless similarities of him and his father. We still had a long list of tasks to do before we could rest for the night. “Here Bo” I said, as I handed him the flint and steel, “get a fire started and I’ll finish the tents.” With a surprised and excited look in his eyes he grabbed it and began looking for a spot and wood. 

Once we were finished with our chore-like list, it was about dark. As we sat and ate, Bo started to question me about my past. He asked about my childhood, and about his great-grandfather. So, I told him about my first time hunting with my dad, “we were in northern Missouri, just outside where I grew up. After we hiked for what felt like days, we finally found the perfect spot. We waited till eventually a buck and a group of doe walked past. As Dad set up to shoot he looked at me and handed me his rifle.” This brought back all the memories of him that I hadn’t thought of for years. I paused for a second then continued, “I then steadied that old and weathered rifle and slowly squeezed the trigger the way he had taught me.”

Bo had a look of astonishment in his eyes, unintentionally showing his youth. Just realizing the time I sent him to bed as I resided to the comfort of my tent. I lay there for hours and let my mind wander. Till I eventually found myself waking up in the early morning dew. 

I quickly fixed a pot of coffee just as Bo got out fully dressed and ready to go. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the look of disappointment on his face as he saw me not close to ready. I walked back, gave him a pat on the head and asked for five minutes. Just under a half hour and we were off in the cold morning air. Bo snuck around like we were surrounded by animals, it was actually quite annoying. It wasn’t till I snapped that he reluctantly stopped. After about two hours we finally got to a good spotting place. Bo then fell down as if he would never be able to walk again. 

After hours of looking through our binoculars mixed with hundreds of bad jokes we finally saw a sow and her cub. I took this moment to tell Bo all about how we never shoot any animal that has a child who relies on it. After this talk about a basic rule of hunting, we saw our first boar. Though again Bo got excited he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that we didn’t want a young bear, but rather an old mature boar. After no more action for the day, we left for camp. 

This night, it began to rain like nothing I’d ever experienced. We shared cold food from our soaked tents and tried to get as much sleep as possible. That next morning just felt like an extension of the previous evening. We hiked back through the woods to the place we were at the day before. There was no movement from the valley below until just before dark. 

“Papa, look at the size of that griz!” Bo shouted. While pointing at the spot where the green grass met the cliff face. 

As I looked I could hardly believe it, there stood a thirteen foot grizzly bear that had to weigh close to twelve hundred pounds. At two hundred yards out I slowly pulled out my rifle, turned the sights three ticks and looked through the scope. It’s about to happen. Ok calm down. Breathe. Everything’s fine. It then came to me, the feeling when my dad let me take the shot at the buck instead of taking it himself. As I lowered the rifle I handed it to Bo with a smile. Nothing or nobody in the world could have looked so happy as he did holding that rifle. He set it snug against his shoulder as I walked him through it. “Put the dot right below his shoulder. Relax all your muscles. Breathe out and slowly pull the trigger.” A loud bang, followed by the puff of smoke, he looked up from the rifle. Two hundred yards out lay a mountain of fur. 

Explanation of Emulation 

I reflected Hemingway’s style in my description of Bo, my sentence format, and ______. Though I gave little description of Bo, I described his “Vivid green eyes and a stocky frame” I did this because Hemingway was very simple and straightforward in his descriptions, “she had high cheekbones, merry eyes and a strait mouth with full lips”(For Whom the Bell Tolls pg.22). As for the sentence format, in tense situations Hemingway uses short sentences to describe the characters racing and chaotic thoughts. I used thoughts like “It’s about to happen. Calm down. Breathe. Everything’s fine” to try to mimic Hemingway, “Eat them, fish. Eat them. Please eat them”(Old Man and the Sea 41). Finally, my characters and setting, similar to Hemingway, I used the idea of something outdoors and based on the idea of hunting. I tried to exemplify Bo as an excitable and maturing boy mixed with Tom, an older and wiser man. I tried to reflect Hemingway in Tom as best I could. I used similarities like his relationship with his father, his knowledge of the outdoors, and the respect they both had for nature. For setting, I used the setting of the brutal Alaskan mountains, which is similar to some of Hemingway’s novels about hunting and fishing in tough and challenging places.

Works Cited

“Ernest Hemingway.” National Book Foundation, National Book Foundation, 29 Jan. 2016, www.nationalbook.org/people/ernest-hemingway/.

Terranella, Slone. “Michigan’s Nature, Forests Inspired Ernest Hemingway’s Creative Process.” Detroit Free Press, Detroit Free Press, 4 Apr. 2021, www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/04/04/ernest-hemingway-in-michigan-pbs-documentary/4852525001/.

Www.brandaiddesignco.com. “The Early Years.” Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway Ltd., 2014, www.ernesthemingwaycollection.com/about-hemingway/ernest-hemingway-early-years.

       Young , Philip. “Ernest Hemingway.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia                                             Britannica, inc., 15 Nov. 2023,                                                                                                www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Hemingway.