Ernest Hemingway

Essay by jas14444University, Bachelor's August 2002

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Hemingway's life influences in his writing

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous American writers in this century. He had earned many rewards such as Nobel and Pulitzer Prize for his tremendous contribution in literature. For many years, his novels and stories are so popular. After reading his works and biography, people have realized that many of his significant works are based on his own experiences. His personal life has a profound influence in his writing. When he created the fiction, he invented from his experiences.

Hemingway described in his novel (Death in the Afternoon) "if the writer is writing truly enough, the readers will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them." Hemingway also says "I make the truth as I invent it truer than it would be" (www.simonsays.com). How he can invent the truth because he had written many of his significant works from his life experiences.

As we read, it is hard to distinguish if Hemingway is writing the truth because he made up stories reflecting the truth he really experienced.

The story "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a good example of what he had expressed his own experiences. Hemingway created three main characters in the story. Francis Macomber is a wealthy man and has been married to a beautiful wife, Margot. They have hired Robert Wilson as their guide on a hunting safari in Africa. Francis knows about "shooting, about fishing?about most of the other things his world dealt in"(The Fifth Column P.120) even before he comes to Africa. But in the lion

hunting game, he has showed that he is an extremely shameful coward. When he hears the wounded lion's "blood choked coughing grunt"(P.119), He runs "like a rabbit" (P.106). Later Margot despises...