Ref.exp.prof. CARMEN VATAMANU ABSTRACT Life includes death. The same applies to pain. It is a pitiful zest for life, which does not, at the same

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1 HEMINGWAY S WOUNDED HERO Ref.exp.prof. CARMEN VATAMANU ABSTRACT Life includes death. The same applies to pain. It is a pitiful zest for life, which does not, at the same time, rejoice in death. Hemingway's hero is wounded. He bears outward or in some cases inward, traces of violence and abuse. His battle consists of conquering dread, a dread that appears as fear of death or fear of life. Such a limited immortality is "a poor substitute for victory over death through everlasting life, but it is the only kind of immortality, the only kind of religion, Hemingway believes in. If the First World War or the other wars consumed the lives of millions, another millions were those having the suffer just because they lived through the war; no matter how much or little they were hurt, all those who went home in the nineteen-twenties or later had lost a large chunk of the stuff called hope. As we know, hope is what feeds the Soul, what burns to heat Love and supplies meaning in a confusing world. For one moment my fingers clutched compulsively upon their hold, while, with the movement, the faintest possible idea of escape wondered, like a shadow, through my mind in the next my whole soul was provided with a longing to fall; a desire a yearning, a passion utterly uncontrollable. I let go at once my grasp upon the peg, and, turning half round from the precipice, remained tottering for an instant against its naked face. But now there came a spinning of the brain; a shrill-sounding and phantom voice screamed within my-ears; a dusky, fiendish and filmy figure stood immediately beneath me; and sighing, I sank down with a bursting heart and plunged within its arms. E.A. Poe Gordon Pym Like Poe s hero, who is identified with total destruction, a death without resurrection, a sterile, white womb from which there is no exit Hemingway s hero is wounded. He bears outward or in some cases inward, traces of violence and abuse. His battle consists of conquering dread, a dread that appears as fear of death or fear of life two apparently polar forms of dread, which in reality are the same. Since life ends with death since death, in other words, is a constituent part of life it is unthinkable to accept life without simultaneously recognizing death as life. Life includes death. The same applies to pain. It is a pitiful zest for life, which does not at the same time rejoice in death. The way in which Catherine meets her end, is obviously a kind of contempt for death, for she recognizes her death as a dirty trick [1] but winks at the joke. She has not been broken by death, despite her feeling to the contrary, and she has therefore gained victory and immortality. This is the only kind of immortality man can know; it is gained by bravery and stoicism, not selfness to God (the Priest) to country (Gino) or to humankind (Rinaldi). Such a limited immortality is a poor substitute for victory over death through everlasting life [2] but it is the only kind of immortality, the only kind of religion, the Hemingway of A Farewell to Arms believes in. If the First World War or the other wars consumed the lives of millions, another millions were those having the suffer just because they lived through the war; no matter how much or little they were hurt, all those who went home in the nineteen-twenties or later had lost a large chunk of the stuff called hope. As we know, hope is what feeds the Soul, what burns to heat Love and supplies meaning in a confusing world. Those people were alone, pitiful individuals in a world that did not work. Feelings of disillusionment, loneliness, inadequacy, and alienation were commonplace. The characters in Hemingway s The Sun Also Rises struggled with this, particularly Robert Cohn. He was a ray of hope that people could not bear. As if in a dark room, when someone drew the shade. It seems the bull chap was sitting on the floor. He was waiting to get strength enough to get up and hit Cohn again. Brett wasn t having any shaking hands, and Cohn was crying and telling her how much he loved her, and she was telling him not to be a ruddy ass. Then Cohn leaned over to shake hands with the bullfighter fellow. No hard feelings you know. All for forgiveness. And the bull-fighter chap hit him in the face again [3]. As Mike spoke, he clearly showed us how much Cohn was pursuing Brett and how strongly everyone, including Brett was rejecting and alienating him. Robert Cohn was probably not even capable like many other victims of the war of truly being in love. He had serious self- esteem problems in college. He took it out in boxing and he came out of Princeton with painful self

2 consciousness and the flattened nose [4] and was married to the first girl who was nice to him. Cohn was looking for love, and he thought he could find it in a girl who would care for him. All of the characters were dealing with this whole issue of self. Cohn, however, dealt with his problems in a different way. He cared nothing for boxing in fact he disliked it, but he learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton [5]. Cohn was willing to work and suffer physically to try to gain back some of what he had, he wanted acceptance and love. Things were not different with Frederic, who would give anything to be somewhere else but on that damned front. Time was running out with the Italian defences at the Austrian frontier, too. On rejoining his corps, Henry finds the morale in a state of collapse, profanity and obscenity increasing with the general spread of war weariness [6]. Though it is still autumn, the winter rains have already set in, torrential and unending. Rain, a pervasive symbol throughout the novel for the depression and destruction of war, now becomes a deluge that washes away the resistance of the Italian army as it had previously eroded all the values of civilization. When he was last with Catherine, it had been raining, too, but only a gentle rain that lent an air of privacy to their rendezvous, and though at night a very different kind of night from the present disastrous one. In new of the whole novel s weather symbolism, these were ominous symptoms; it is true, for a similar light rain will be falling on the spring night at Lausanne when Catherine dies. Indeed, there are only two memorable scenes, in the book, when it is not raining and these are the two most vividly associated with a life of peace and love. First, near the beginning, the chaplain priest s account of his home in the bright cool air of the Abruzzi mountains, where a man may love God without feeling foolish and where the spring... was the most beautiful in Italy [7]. Second, near the conclusion, at the chalet in the Swiss Alps where Catherine and Henry have their only real life together, their love soaring into an idyll in the clear winter sunshine for a few months before it goes down to its tragic end. However, midway in the novel, there is still a great distinction in his mind between the big rain symbolizing the general destruction of war and the small rain that merely plagued their love without dampening it. In his present war-dream he can only look back to the Milan episode, when in spite of the small rain it was not winter for them in either inner or outer climate, as a dream of love to be repeated. So his yearning (perhaps his foreboding too) wrings a cry of anguish from him: Christ that my love were in my arms and I in my bed again [8]. This certainly strikes the note of physical passion, as it rightly should since A Farewell to Arms is one of the great love stories of the century. When the love of man for woman reaches the point of demanding expression in poetry, this is itself a token of aspiration above the flesh. For his entire worldly pose, he has been concerned for some time with this dual aspect of his affair. Early in the book, in the same conversation with the priest mentioned above they were discussing sacred and profane love. Lieutenant Henry's mind was preoccupied with the changing attitude toward Catherine, which had begun on the level of sexual desire, differing only in behavioral pattern from that which the other soldiers satisfied through prostitutes. That kind of thing is only passion and lust, the priest said, remembering the ribald talk at mess. It is utterly different from the love of God: When you love you wish to do things for, you wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve [9]. When Henry asked If I really loved some woman, would she be like that? (p. 75) the celibate would not venture to answer. But the development of his love for Catherine in the ensuing months has been clearly in this direction and its progress is actually recorded in the dream from the symbol of carnal desire at the beginning to his solicitude for her and the child at the end [10]. As a man who confesses he does not know how to love God, she is the one he worships, her grace that he implores. Only her love raining down on him can make the earth green again with spring and the downward flow of her delivery in childbirth will bring the renewal of life in the fruitfulness of love. Catherine and Henry s child, still in the womb and not yet part of their lives, is referred to only indirectly ( I m sorry he makes you so uncomfortable ) [11], but his coming accounts at least in part for the new tenderness of the lover now directed solely to the pregnant mother. Try and go to sleep, sweet, [12] he ends his lullaby. The reader, from memory, can fill in all the rest from Sweet and low to sleep, my pretty one, sleep [13] The dream is not lost, merely

3 locked in the hero's heart, and its major affirmations reappear twice in muted form. Once, while escaping from the enemy, as his men, fall away from him one by one crying Peace and Home, Henry asks the remaining loyal one why he did not run with the others. I should think a married man would want to get back to his wife, I would be glad to talk about wives (p. 229). Again, while escaping from his own battle police, he would have shot him if he had not broken from them and dived into the river. Now lying on the floor of a freight car, temporarily safe but half-dazed, he falls into a kind of daydream: I could remember Catherine but I knew I would get crazy if I thought about her... so I would not think about her, only about her a little,... lying with Catherine on the floor of the car. Hard as the floor of the car and lonesome inside and alone with wet clothing and hard floor for a wife (p. 240). Home and married love! Throughout, such words have come to represent all that men dream of as not war, just as war is the desolate world of not home, where love can only take its chances. In addition, these some words, strangely enough, have been more often on his lips than on hers the sentiment of the hardened soldier even more than of the expectant mother. After the loss of his idealism for a cause, they become the measure of all his conduct to the end of the book. If Frederic felt trapped by that war, and felt like he had no chance of escape being willing to work and suffer physically to get back what was once his: love and acceptance, things were not different with Cohn, who, however had felt, trapped during the war, had survived it, though it caused him nothing but trouble. His only hope was that true love existed, but he had not known it, not yet; this was Cohn s belief, the one that like Frederic s kept him going. The others tried to simply escape their problems in sex, alcohol, work or fishing. This is a similarity between Cohn and Romero. Although boxing is not as threatening as fighting bulls, the work, torment, and sweat involved show the hope that they have, that the result is worth the work and pain. Cohn was still waiting for the love of his life; for four years his horizon had been absolutely limited to his wife. For three years, or almost three years, he had never seen beyond, I am sure he had never been in love in his life (p. l30). Frances was very forceful, and Cohn never had a chance of being taken in hand. Also he was sure that he loved her. Robert Cohn had two rather lengthy relationships, both three years and more. He did not fall in and out of love as quickly as the others did. The same things happened to Frederic. Though we are not clearly told, it seems that he is not the kind of man looking for adventures; he seems rather stable in his relationship to Catherine; he didn t want to fall in love, but he did, and he didn t make a fool of himself; he fought for his love, though he seemed to know he had no chances of succeeding. It seems that to Frederic-Catherine and to Cohn-Brett-were the only rays of light, the only thing left worth fighting for. Even though she [Brett] was married when he had his first affair with her and was engaged to get married again, he continued to pursue her. The others could not understand this willingness to wait. The same situation had Frederic to go through, not being understood by the rest of his friends. The priest thought it was an endless fight and eventually he would be greatly hurt. Mike expressed what they were all thinking, but were not drunk enough to say to Cohn s face. Mike was indeed drunk enough, as he usually was. Tell me Robert. Why do you follow Brett around like a poor bloody steer? Don t you know you are not wanted? I know when I am not wanted. Why don't you know, when you are not wanted? You come down to San Sebastian, where you were not wanted and followed Brett around like a bloody steer. Do you think that is right? (p. 146) Cohn only responded by saying, Shut up you are drunk and then went to his hotel room to calm down and think. Again, Robert Cohn was rejected for his romantic ideals and driven away. This time he was alienated physically as well as emotionally. As for Mike s outburst, Jake had earlier stated, Cohn had a wonderful quality of bringing out the worst in anybody (p. 149) which is to say that Cohn s hope was foreign to the other s spiritual emptiness and that they reacted as if they were annoyed and angry at him because they couldn t really feel any sense of loss. The same

4 feeling of this sense of loss Frederic must have felt, when getting the picture of Catherine not getting well; he must have suffered at least the same as Cohn did. Robert Cohn unlike Frederic was usually referred to by the full name Robert Cohn or simply by his last name, Cohn. He was rarely called by his first name, although almost every other character was almost exclusively named by his first name. The other exceptions were Spider, Kelly and Harris. They played minor roles only making brief appearances in the novel. They were strangers. Robert Cohn, however, was seen throughout the book, but remained a stranger of sorts, an outcast though he was as Frederic Henry is-the most important character in the novel. Still Hemingway emphasized this Cohn being an outcast by calling him by a less personal name. Even Frances, his fiancée of whom we know even less, warrants only a first name. Pedro Romero was more often than not simply referred to as Romero but Hemingway also set him apart due to the youth and hopes that he represented through the book. His dealings with death and his deep Spanish heritage set him apart. Hemingway also referred to him by his last name to keep the feeling that one would have in the bull-fighting ring where he would not be called by his first name alone. Throughout the book, Romero is to be seen as someone to watch and not to truly interact with, as one who is in the ring. Cohn on the other hand, is simply emotionally distanced and deliberately kept out of the clique [14] things which do not happen to Frederic, him being the centre of the book, the one causing and developing the entire action. Cohn came to represent alienation in the novel. After the first night of Festival in Pamplona, Jake retires early and goes back to the hotel alone. All of his friends were still out in the town, drinking, no doubt. It is not simply a coincidence that Jake could not find his key and had to sleep in Robert Cohn s room. It is quiet possible that this passage reflects how Cohn felt and saw things, through Jake s eyes. Jake is the narrator, but Hemingway has established him as an observer. With Cohn s jacket, on Cohn s balcony, alone, Jake saw the bulls all running together and the men all running together and the one man fall unnoticed. That must have been how Robert Cohn felt his whole life. When Cohn had passed out in the restaurant, no one really noticed or cared. Where s Cohn. He s passed out. Brett called. They have put him away somewhere. Where is he? I do not know. How we should know, Brett said. I think he s dead (p. 204). Deep down, he may not have felt as alienated from other people as Jake and Mike and Bill and Brett. Because Cohn was not selling sex or cheap thrills drenched in alcohol, he was an outsider; because he did not mock at his own life as the rest of them did, he was an outcast; he was everything that the others were not he and his old mate in suffering, Frederic. Both of them suffered and became outcasts of the society they lived in and all these because of what the war had done to them. This was the price for surviving; this was the price for not giving up or giving in. They might not be able to ever love again, really love, but they believed they could. This shred of hope that they held on to was enough to disgust those around them that had lost theirs, and this way those two heroes became the outcast for all others to exclude and spit upon to somehow feel superior because they were, at that time a group all excluding the annoying solicitors that Cohn, Frederic and the rest like them, were. They were the heroes, unfortunately the only heroes ever to succeed and survive that damned war that got all of them trapped for ever, even if they were alive, very much alive. This is what this war brought about: anger, pain, disaster and this is what it took from the survivors: love, acceptance, happiness, life itself. Loved or not, accepted or not, alive or not they had to go on, to go on living, because they were the wounded heroes whose curse was to live. REFERENCES [1] Hemingway, Ernest, A farewell to Arms, New York, Princeton University, 1962, p. 230 [2] Donald, Scott, By Force of Will; the Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway, New York, University Press, 1977, p. 18 [3] Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, London, Hunt Bernard Printing Ltd., 1983, p. 132 [4] Ibidem, p. 103

5 [5] Ibidem, p. 140 [6] Sillich, Richard, Hemingway, Los Angeles, University Press, 1962, p. 208 [7] Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, p. 293 [8] Ibidem, p. 197 [9] Ibidem, p. 202 [10] Robinson, Casey, The Modern American Novel, New York, Viking Press, 1977, p. 59 [11] Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, p. 139 [12] Anderson, Charles R., Hemingway, New York, University Press, 1977, p. 232 [13] Meyers, Jeffrey, Hemingway s Story, London, Faber & Faber, 1996, p. 88 [14] Anderson, Charles R, cit.ed., p. 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Asselinean, Roger, The Literary Reputation of Hemingway in Europe, New York, Viking Press, Baker, Carlos, Hemingway The Writer as Artist, Princeton, 1952, 4 th revised ed., Donaldson, Scott, By Force of Will, the Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway, New York, Viking Press, Ferguson, Otis, The Film Criticism, edited by Robert Wilson, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, Hardy, R.E. and Cull, I., Hemingway, a Comprehensive Bibliography, New York, Bautam Books, Meyers, Jeffrey, Ernest Hemingway, the Critical Heritage, London, Roudledge & Kegan Paul, Pikard, Roy, The Tough Race, New York, Twayne, Weeks, Robert, Hemingway, a collection of Critical Essays, New York, Englewood Cliffs, 1962

THE SUN ALSO RISES (Fiesta)

THE SUN ALSO RISES (Fiesta) Definition It can be defined as a novel of manners because it represents a whole generation (the LOST GENERATION) The problem is that it is also a moral novel in modernist style