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What was Hemingway's life like?

Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in the village of Oak Park near Chicago, Illinois. His father is a well-known local doctor with excellent medical skills. He likes hunting, fishing, shooting, collecting specimens and other activities. His mother was a woman with certain artistic accomplishments and religious concepts. She loved music and painting, and asked Hemingway to learn cello from an early age. Influenced by such a family environment, Hemingway developed a love for literature, art and sports from his childhood. On the eve of graduating from high school in 1917, the United States entered World War I, and he was unable to enlist due to eye disease. In October of the same year, he joined the Kansas City "Star" as a trainee reporter. The newspaper asked him to "use short sentences" and "use lively language" and other requirements, so that he received preliminary writing training, which would later form his concise style. had an impact.

In May 1918, Hemingway joined the Volunteer Ambulance Corps and served as the driver of the Red Cross convoy. He was seriously injured on the Italian front. In early 1919, he returned to his hometown and practiced writing. In 1921, he went to Toronto and worked as a feature reporter. A few months later, he went to Europe as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star, writing reports on the international conferences in Geneva and Lausanne and dispatches on the Greco-Turkish War. From 1924 to 1927, he served as European correspondent for Hearst Newspapers.

While Hemingway was stationed in Europe, he continued to write. Through the introduction of the writer Sherwood Anderson, he met the American female writer Gertrude Stein and the poet Ezra Pound living in Paris. Stein encouraged him to write and taught him how to write concisely and focusedly. In 1922, he began publishing works in newspapers and periodicals, including fables, poems, and short stories. In 1923, the first collection "Three Short Stories and Ten Poems" was published. Another collection "In Our Time" was published in Paris in 1924, including 18 short stories. It had a small circulation and had little influence. A collection of the same name was published in the United States the following year, including 13 short stories and 16 inserts between each story. Although this collection of stories and the novel "Spring Tide" (1926), which was imitated from Anderson's works, did not sell well, they attracted the attention of critics for their unique style. The novelist Scott Fitzgerald, who was already famous at that time, said that Hemingway "had a new temperament" and formed a "style that will not be corrupted."

Some novels in "In Our Time" describe the life of Nick Adams in his teenage years. For example, "The Indian Tent" writes that Nick followed his father on a medical visit and saw an Indian committing suicide. Situation; "The End of Something" writes about the end of Nick's first love; in "The Big Two-Hearted River", Nick has been demobilized from the European War and returned home, fishing all day long to get rid of the nightmare war left on his soul. trauma. These works represent lonely individuals in a violent world, and have developed an implicit and simple style in art. He does not reveal the characters' thoughts and emotions directly, but reveals the characters' mood through detailed action descriptions.

In 1926, Hemingway published his first important novel "The Sun Also Rises" (the British version was titled "Festival", 1927). The novel describes the life of a group of young people living in Europe after the war. . The heroine, Brett Ashley, is an Englishman who lost her loved ones in the war; the hero, Jack Barnes, is an American journalist who lost his ability to have sex due to injuries to his lower body during the war. Jack and Brett fell in love, but could not be united. The war brought them physical and psychological trauma, and they felt confused, tired and decadent about life. The novel also describes an American writer, Robert Cohen, who thinks he is heroic and has romantic illusions about life; he pursues Brett, but neither Brett nor her friends like him and feel that his life Viewing is old-fashioned and false. This work expresses the disillusionment of the young generation after the First World War. Stein once said to Hemingway and others: "You are all a lost generation." Hemingway regarded this sentence as an epigraph for the novel. Because the novel describes the disappointment of this generation, "The Sun Also Rises" has become a representative work of the "lost generation".

In 1927, Hemingway returned to the United States and published his second short story collection "Men Without Women", among which the famous ones include "The Invincible Man", "Fifty Thousand Oceans" and "Murder" ”. "The Unbeatable" describes a Spanish bullfighter who is physically weak and tries his best to persevere in the bullfight in order to maintain his former honor; "Fifty Thousand Oceans" describes a boxer who would rather fail to maintain professional dignity; "The Killing" Nick Adamus, the protagonist of "The Killer," is horrified when faced with a murder case. In these novels, Hemingway created a "tough guy character" who was not afraid of danger and looked down upon death. This type of character had an impact on later American popular literature.

In 1929, Hemingway published the novel "A Farewell to Arms" (old translation of "Battlefield Dreams"), with the theme of opposing imperialist war. The protagonist Henry is an American volunteer who was wounded on the Italian front. During his hospitalization, he was carefully cared for by British nurse Catherine, and the two fell in love. After he returned to the army, he was mistaken for a German spy by the Italian army and arrested during a retreat. He escaped while awaiting execution, and went into exile in Switzerland with Catherine, where they lived a happy life. Unfortunately, Catherine and the baby died in childbirth, and Henry was devastated. In "A Farewell to Arms", Hemingway regarded the personal suffering suffered in the war as a human disaster. In his view, people are like "ants on a burning log": some are "burnt to a pulp and don't know where to run"; while "most of them run into the fire" and "are still burned to death in the fire when they arrive" ". The author does not put his hope in a peaceful life after the war. He believes that people are powerless in this violent world: "The world kills the kindest people, the most kind people, and the most courageous people. ... If you Those who are not these types of people will die sooner or later, but they are not eager to kill you.” Although Hemingway fell into pessimism and despair because he failed to fully understand the nature of the First World War, his view of the empire was not the same. Socialist war propaganda is extremely disgusting. He sarcastically said through Henry's inner monologue, "I feel ashamed when I hear empty words such as sacred, glorious, and sacrifice." In this war to "save world democracy," "I didn't see anything sacred, and there was no glory in glorious things. As for sacrifice, it was like the slaughterhouse in Chicago, except that the meat was buried." Hemingway started from criticizing imperialist war propaganda and then denied all spiritual values ??of bourgeois society. Therefore, the characters in his works lost any faith and even lost the ability to think: "My head is mine, but I can't use it, I can't think, I just can't use it. You can recall, but you can't think too much."

"A Farewell to Arms" is Hemingway's masterpiece, which fully demonstrates Hemingway's artistic maturity. The description of the environment where the scenes blend together, the pure use of actions and images to express emotions, the telegraph-style dialogues, the brief but sincere inner monologues, the irony between intentional and unintentional means, the simple and concise style and the refined daily expressions, etc., constitute his unique creative style.

After Hemingway left Europe in 1927, he first lived in Key West, Florida, USA, and then moved to Cuba. He often went hunting and went fishing on his yacht "Pilar". The works he published in the first half of the 1930s include the monograph "Death in the Afternoon" (1932) about Spanish bullfighting, the short story collection "The Winner Gets Nothing" (1933), and the notebook about hunting in Africa "The Green Mountains of Africa" ??(1935). In "Death in the Afternoon" he summarized his creative experience and proposed the metaphor of an iceberg: "The iceberg moving in the sea is very solemn and majestic, because only one-eighth of it is above the water." This shows that the writer has deep feelings. The basics can only be implicit and concise; in this case, readers will "strongly feel what he has omitted, as if the author had already written it." In 1936, Hemingway published his famous short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", which uses a stream of consciousness technique that interweaves reality and fantasy to describe a writer's reflections before his death.

In 1937, Hemingway's novel "To Have and Have Not" was published.

The protagonist Harry Morgan is a refugee in Florida. During the Great Depression, he could not make a living by fishing at sea, so he had no choice but to take risks and engage in maritime smuggling. He smuggled liquor, arms and even slaves, and ended up with a broken arm. As a poor proletarian, Harry finally realized a truth from his painful and troubled life before he died, that is, "lonely" struggle is "unsuccessful." This is Hemingway's clear contact with the social theme of the unity and struggle of the working people.

In 1937, Hemingway went to Spain to report on the war as a reporter for the North American Craftsmen Union. He actively supported the young revolutionaries and the government, wrote the narration for the film "Spanish Land", and spoke at the Second American Writers Conference to denounce fascism. In 1938, he published the script "The Fifth Column". After the Spanish Civil War, he returned to Cuba and wrote the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (formerly translated as "The Bell Tolls") in the suburbs of Havana, which was published in 1940. This novel is set against the background of the Spanish Civil War. It tells the story of an American named Joeton who was ordered to blow up a bridge with the cooperation of a mountain guerrilla group. It focuses on describing Joeton's activities in the three days and nights before blowing up the bridge, including the differences within the guerrillas and their courage. The conflict between the young guerrilla captain and his brave wife, the anti-fascist sentiments of the simple and brave guerrillas, the love between Qiao Dun and a Spanish girl, the heroic fighting and sacrifice of another guerrilla team, Qiao Dun’s situation. The process of communicating with superiors, the chaos in the highest military leadership of the International Brigade and the difficulties they face, etc. The novel also describes the physical punishment of farmers on some fascists with disgust. In the end, Qiao Dun carried out the mission of blowing up the bridge without getting in touch with his superiors. He was seriously injured and stopped the enemy alone on the top of the mountain. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" opposes fascism from a democratic standpoint. The protagonist has a high sense of responsibility. Before his death, Jordan reviewed his life and affirmed that his sacrifice for anti-fascism was glorious and noble.

In the early 1940s, Hemingway came to China to report on the Anti-Japanese War. From 1942 to 1944, he was commended for patrolling the seas on the yacht "Pilar". He had led a guerrilla force in the battle to liberate Paris and was therefore accused of violating the Geneva Conference's rules prohibiting journalists from participating in the fighting. Hemingway went to trial, was acquitted, and later received a bronze medal.

In the 1950s, Hemingway published the novel "Across the River and into the Woods" (1950) and the novella "The Old Man and the Sea" (1952). "Across the River and Into the Woods" depicts Colonel Canterwell reminiscing about the past battlefields, reflecting on self-pity, pessimism and depression, repeating the themes of loneliness, love, and death, and it also lacks brilliance in art. The book was not well received by critics. The theme of "The Old Man and the Sea" is that people should face failure bravely. Although the fisherman Santiago in the novel failed in his fight with the shark that symbolized doom, he was persevering and won the victory by treating failure with grace. There is a famous saying in the novel:

"A person is not born to be defeated. You can eliminate him, but you can't defeat him."

Santia The image of Brother fighting alone is the continuation and development of the "tough guy character" created by Hemingway in the 1920s and 1930s. Its artistic generalization is higher, reaching the height of allegory and symbolism. "The Old Man and the Sea" won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize.

In 1954, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his "mastery of the art of modern narrative." He stated in his written speech at the award ceremony:

“For a true writer, every book should be a starting point for him to continue to explore areas that have not yet been reached. He should always try Do things that have never been done or done before.”

After the Cuban Revolution, the Hemingways moved to Idaho, United States. In his later years, he suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes, iron metabolism disorders and other diseases. He suffered from severe mental depression, and many medical treatments failed. On the morning of July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide with a shotgun.

After Hemingway's death, his wife Mary published two of his posthumous works; "The Feast That Never Parted" (1964) and "Island in the Current" (1970).

The former is a memoir, recalling his writing life in Paris in the 1920s and his interactions with some writers. The novel "Island in the Current" was written around the same time as "The Old Man and the Sea", and describes three episodes in the life of the painter Hudson: "Bemini" describes the painter and his three sons on vacation on the island. "Cuba" tells the story of a painter's reconciliation and separation with his divorced first wife; "At Sea" tells the story of a painter performing a patrol mission at sea and tracking a group of Nazis. Among them, "Bemini" is better written and has the legacy of "The Old Man and the Sea".

Hemingway's writing has a distinct rhythm, smooth and natural flow, and the words and sentences are well-chosen and extremely specific and precise; the characters' dialogues are colloquial and personalized, and in a few words, the characters come to life on the page. At the same time, Hemingway often used symbolic techniques to give concrete images to abstract thoughts and feelings. For example, "A Farewell to Arms" uses rain to symbolize misfortune and death, and its use is very successful and is often praised by critics.

Hemingway's prose style is unpretentious, concise and fresh. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, special emphasis was placed on the narrative ability of his unique modern prose.