Ernest Hemmingway and his Writings

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 12th gradeA+, January 1996

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Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelest and

short-story writer whose writings and personal life exerted a

profound influence on American writers of his time and

thereafter. Many of his works are regarded as American classics,

and some have subsequently been made into motion pictures. A

review of Hemingway reveals many interesting points about his

life, about the influences upon his works, and of the the themes

and styles of his writings.

An examination of Hemingway's past brings to light many

interesting points and helps to create a better understanding of

how he came to be the master of the understated prose style. The

second of six children born to Clarence and Grace Hemingway,

Ernest was born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. The society

he grew up in was one of strict disciplinarians. His parents

were no exception. In fact he spent much of his life trying to

escape the 'repressive code of behavior' (CLC, 177) that was

pushed upon him as a child.

After graduating high school in 1977

he chose not to go to college and instead became a reporter for

the Kansas City Star, where he remained for seven months. His

oppurtunity to break away came when he volunteered as a Red

Cross ambulance driver in Italy. In July of 1918 while serving

along the Piave River, he was severely wounded by shrapnel and

forced to return home after recuperation in January 1919. The

war had left him emotionally and physically shaken, and

according to some critics he began as a result 'a quest for

psychological and artistic freedom that was to lead him first to

the secluded woods of Northern Michigan, where he had spent his

most pleasant childhood moments, and then to Europe, where his

literary talents began to take shape.' (CLC, 177)...