The Hemingway Hero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Hemingway Hero - Essay Example In words, the Hemingway heroes are "courageous, confident and introspective", and "he does not let his fears get to him (http://engliterarium.blogspot.com) "Although Ernest Hemingway's heroes have different names they are fundamentally the same person, drawing from the same traumatizing experiences. However emotionally disturbed, Hemingway's heroes always seem to have some hope guiding them into the future. Their characteristics are all very similar, and the characters often seem to blend seamlessly into each other" (http://www.directessays.com). Another way of describing the Hemingway hero is someone who has grace under pressure. The Hemingway heroes are described as "code heroes". "Hemingway defined the Code Hero as 'a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful.' He measures himself by how well he handle the difficult situations that life throws at him. In the end the Code Hero will lose because we are all mortal, but the true measure is how a person faces death. He believes in "Nada," a Spanish word meaning nothing. Along with this, there is no after life" (http://engliterarium.blogspot.com). In "A Days Wait", the hero is not the boy but his father. The story is very simple. It was about a boy and his dad, an encounter when the boy is sick and the father was taking care of his some. The father was typical of a Hemingway hero, similar to Nick, the hero in the story, "Father and Son". Although the boy reflects worries and anxieties, the father was the opposite. Amidst the emotional pressure of taking care of a sick loved one, the father remained calmed, that's why he was also able to calm down the boy thus removing his fears. This is a show of "grace under pressure" a characteristic of a Hemingway hero In the story "In Another Country", the hero is the narrator. He is living the ordinary life of a man who has wounded leg caused by the war. The character is similar to what we have described above as a Hemingway hero - guided by hope in the future and at the same time he believes in the "nada" concept, meaning there is no after life. The man showed hope through his sickness, hopeful that he is going to get well and recover even he is in a foreign country, but the loss of his wife to death will never be recovered again. This painful reality reflects a depressing scenario on the life of a person and this is typical of a Hemingway hero. As stated above, the hero has a traumatizing experience. In the Story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place", we witness an old man who is enveloped by darkness as signified by his blindness and his desire to be in the cafe. The young waiter could not relate to him as the former is happy with his life, especially having a wife. But the old man was depressed and finds respite in drinking. This story hero is so much reflective of a Hemingway hero who is suffering emotionally so that he even tried to commit suicide. Although, this is of course a revelation of Hemingway's later suicide decision, still the character was fighting and struggling for a well-lighted place. He still refused to succumb to darkness. Ironically, Harry is the one that resembles the character of a non-hero. "Where most of Hemingway's stories feature protagonists who speak little and reflect nothing at all about their motivations and