By Alec Kissoondyal
Many of Hemingway's stories are famous--or perhaps, infamous-- for the numerous moments of violence and hardship experienced by characters who find themselves in settings that vary from trenches of World War I or the gulf stream off the coast of Cuba. However, the use of violence in Hemingway's stories is not simply written for the sake of being gratuitous. Rather, they are used to explore a deeper dimension of the human condition. It is often the case that the violence and suffering displayed in these stories are paired with moments of deep spiritual meaning and metaphysical implications. In this paper, I will examine the connection between the use of violence, trauma, and the metaphysical to develop a better understanding of Hemingway's work, and how he viewed the world.
World War I played an undeniably large part in Hemingway's early life, and he would allude to the horrors of war in letters to his family, one of which, written on August 18, 1918, reads "You know they say there isn't anything funny about war. And there isn't. I wouldn't say it was hell, because that's been a bit overused since General Sherman's time, but there have been about 8 times when I would have welcomed hell" (14). The wartime incident that had the most profound effect on him was his near-fatal wounding from mortar fire a few weeks into his time at the front. This incident did not just affect Hemingway physically, but psychologically as well, to the extent that it caused the young Hemingway to grow disillusioned with the congregational teachings that he was brought up with. Matthew Nickel argues that "this wounding and the experience of war, regardless of how brief it was, presented to Hemingway a horror that would have made it difficult to believe in the 'perfectibility of human life' and easy redemption of Oak Park"(4). Despite the religious skepticism brought on by the incident, Hemingway explores his near-death experience through his literature, in situations that contain descriptions and imagery bordering on the metaphysical. This can be seen in the short story Now I Lay Me where the protagonist, Nick Adams, fears falling asleep at night because "I had been living for a long time with the knowledge that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my soul would go out of my body. I had been that way for a long time, ever since I had been blown up at night and felt it go out of me and go off and then come back"( Hemingway, 222). The story also mentions Nick's use of prayer as a coping mechanism stave off sleep until morning, mentioning that "If you prayed for all of them, saying Hail Mary and Our Father for each one, it took a long time, and finally it would be light, and then you could go to sleep if you were in a place where you could sleep in the daylight"(Hemingway, Now I Lay, 223).
A similar out of body experience occurs in A Farewell To Arms, when the protagonist, Fredric Henry, is wounded by an exploding mortar round, describing the incident as "I went out of myself swiftly, all of myself, and knew I was dead and that it had all been a mistake to think you just died. Then I floated, and instead of going on, I felt myself slide back. I breathed, and I was back"( Hemingway, 51). This incident is also followed by a panicked prayer, not by the protagonist this time, but by his friend, Passini, who manages to blurt out "Dio te salve, Maria. Dio te Salve Maria. Oh Jesus shoot me Christ, shoot me"(Hemingway, Farewell, 51). When Fredric is being treated for his wounds, there is a description of "the sweet smell of blood" (Hemingway, 54). While this description is brief and seemingly unimportant when it stands on its own, it becomes notably more significant when compared to a strikingly similar description that can be found in The Old Man and The Sea. Near the beginning of the story, Manolin, the boy who fishes with Santiago, recalls the first time he went out on a boat with the old man. It is also the boy's first brush with death. He recalls "...feeling the whole boat shiver and the noise of you clubbing him like chopping a tree down and the sweet blood smell all over me"(Hemingway, Old Man, 4).
Again, we see the same description of blood in two different stories, and, beyond that, both are found during a point in each respective narrative where a character is first confronted with a profoundly personal and intimate experience with violence. In their book, Reading Hemingway's Old Man and The Sea, authors Bickford Sylvester, Larry Grimes, and Peter Hayes take note of this blood trope, stating that
the incident through which the boy recalls the blooding event suggests both anointing oil and baptismal immersion: "The sweet blood smell all over me". The emphasis on smell anticipates later passages in which blood is present as scent rather than as liquid. It is notable that almost the same words are also associated with Lt. Henry with his initiation into the paradoxical realities of his violent world (12).
This constant interplay between life and death is a persistent theme in Hemingway's work, and as a result, violence is not perceived as an adversarial conflict, but as a dance, or even a drama which reaffirms the profound mystery of life, provided that these violent acts are performed gracefully. An example of this can be found in The Sun Also Rises during the climax of one of the bullfights when "Romero's left hand dropped the muleta over the bull's muzzle to blind him, his left shoulder went forward between the horns as the sword went in, and for just an instant, he and the bull were one, Romero way out over the bull, the right arm extended high up to where the hilt of the sword had gone between the bull's shoulders"(Hemingway, 65).
Here, we see life and death become one, at least for a moment, temporarily reconciling the duality between these two opposing, yet necessary forces. This is alluded to earlier in the novel during a conversation between Brett and Romero:
"'You kill your friends?' she asked.
'Always,' he said in English and laughed. 'So they don't kill me'" (Hemingway, The Sun,52).
A similar sentiment is expressed again in 'The Old Man and the Sea', where Santiago ponders the connection between himself and the marlin he is contending with, as well as the paradoxical necessity of death giving way to life: "I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers (Hemingway, The Old Man, 70).
While similar philosophical topics are addressed in the previous stories, The Old Man and the Sea takes this concept a step further. Unlike Fredric Henry, a young man who has been recently initiated into the brutal nature of the world, Santiago is old and experienced in the ways of life and death, having made his living as a fisherman for many years. And while Santiago and Romero are both attuned to the constant dance of life and death, we have a very limited view of Romero's perspective. With Santiago however, the reader does not just know of his actions, but of his thoughts as well, and it is through this glimpse at Santiago's inner self that we see that his role as a fisherman gives rise to a higher inner principle that he seeks to constantly and constantly reaffirm. This higher principle manifests itself in his dreams in the form of lions playing on the beach. During the first mention of Santiago's dream, it is stated that "He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy"(Hemingway, The Old Man, 19).
The outcome of his struggle with the Marlin, whether it is successful or not, is inconsequential. Santiago does not find meaning in the outcome of the act, but in the act itself. It is through his actions that he can align himself with the higher principles of his own life that go beyond the temporal aspects of life, death, and even the suffering that lies in between. This is reflected in the physical appearances of the lions that appear in Santiago's dreams. As Sylvester, Grimes, and Hays mention, "Santiago does not dream of young lions. He dreams of lions that behave as if they were young, as lions frequently do, romping and chasing each other like kittens. This distinction identifies them with Santiago himself, not simply as when he saw the lions, but as he has been ever since, and will be until he dies" (40).
These principles are further personified by the character of the boy, Manolin, who fished with Santiago until his parents forced him to stop due to the Old Man's bad luck. The boy is referenced at the end of the passage about the lions on the beach, and the love that Santiago has for him is reaffirmed by the end of the story. Despite Santiago's adventure with the marlin ending in what could objectively be considered a failure, the boy expresses his intentions to rejoin Santiago at the end of the story, proclaiming "The hell with luck. I'll bring the luck with me"(120). The meaning of the boy's real name, 'Manolin' adds another layer of significance to this reunion. As Sylvester, Grimes, and Hays note, "...the young man's name stands for the Hebrew Emmanuel, God is with us..."(63). By willingly participating in the mystery of life and death, Santiago ends the novella by "dreaming about the lions"(Hemingway, The Old Man, 123).
The rich assortment of themes and imagery contained within Hemingway's body of work not only evokes the fullness of life, but the hardship that gives life meaning. While we may not be able to fully comprehend the that situations characters like Fredric Henry or Nick Adams find themselves in, the challenges and violence they are confronted with evoke a form of compassion that comes from an intrinsic understanding of the pain each human must endure at one time or another. It may also be for this very reason that we can learn from characters like Romero and Santiago, who sublimate their suffering by fully participating in life and death. By doing so, they sacrifice everything in the moment for the sake of a higher principle within themselves. If they do not suffer for something greater, then there is nothing greater than suffering.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. 1929. Scribner, 1997.
---.Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, edited by Carlos Baker, Scribner 1981. pp. 14-16.
---."Now I Lay Me." The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Simon &Schuster, 1987. pp. 222-226.
---. The Old Man and the Sea. 1952. Scribner, 1995.
---. The Sun Also Rises.1926.Scribner, 2014.
Nickel, Matthew. Hemingway's Dark Night: Catholic Influences and Intertextualities in the Work of Ernest Hemingway. New Street Communications, 2013.
Sylvester, Bickford et al. Reading Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Kent State University Press, 2018.