Ernest Hemingway Stories About Men Essay, Research Paper

All people of this world are different in some way or another. This is a fact.

No two people are alike, nor do any beings on this earth contain the same exact

physical features, but in this, personality traits are shared. Many desire to

succeed, to encounter love and emotion, and feed their cravings of hunger, sex,

and dignity. That is why man is man. No matter how demeaning or wounded they may

be, man craves to come out as the winner. In the A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, A

Day?s Wait, and In Another Country, the author Ernest Hemingway illustrates

his characters with troubles of mental and physical behaviors. In parallel, all

these characters share one universal goal; it is to come out of their single

situations with dignity and decency. The clean and well-lighted caf? in the

story, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, presented the old man with a place to go.

Common to all beings, man likes to go out to a clean and well-lit place to share

a drink with himself, maybe to soak away life?s unfairness or simply to enjoy

his successes. The old man in this story showed dignity, ?The waiter watched

him go down the street, a very old man walking unsteadily but with

dignity.?(31) His deafness was not the wound that this man would let him fail

in life, but with this gift, he would succeed. The deafness does not seem to

bother the old man but more to let him enjoy what he does without anyone else

bothering him. The old man was a regular in the caf?, ?The two waiters inside

the caf? knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good

client??(29), indicating that even with his deafness and annoyance to one of

the waiters, ?I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must

work.?(31) the old man was always invited in. The old man likes the caf?, not

for it?s brandy but for the light, the people and the waiters, all which whom

he cannot hear. A man?s destination to go where he must go is sometimes

blocked by Mother Nature. In a A Day?s Wait, Schatz is a boy that is over

worried about falling asleep and letting his sickness over take his body and

lose his dignity in front of his father. ?Why don?t you try to go to sleep?

I?ll wake you up for the medicine.? (35) ?I?d rather stay awake. You

don?t have to stay in here with me Papa, if it bothers you.?(35) The boy is

now indirectly telling his father he does not want him to be here with him at

all. ?No, I mean you don?t have to stay if it?s going to bother

you.?(35) The boy is worried about the temperature his papa had written down

for him. ?His face was very white and there were dark areas under his eyes. He

lay still in the bed and seemed very detached from what was going on.?(34) The

boy is in a state of mental disorder where as everything in the world means

nothing to him and all he wants is to continue to live. ?At school in France

the boys told me you can?t live with forty-four degrees. I?ve got hundred

and two.?(36) What was written in the back of the boy?s room had been

haunting him since he found out about his news. Telling his father to leave the

room was a way for the boy to let go of his fake dignity and pride and possibly

die without losing self-confidence in the eyes of this father. The boy thought

that he had a wound that would lead to his death but still showed courage by

telling his father to leave the room so the boy could await his death. The

protection the boy expresses in the story makes him a man of self-respect and

dignity. In Another Country, poses a major whom is letting his dignity and pride

show toward Nicholas Adams who is also wounded. The major and Nicholas Adams

seem to have a relationship that his clearly a man to boy rapport. The major is

the man, whom holds knowledge but at the same time fear of losing his pride

though his wounds of the past. The major shows anger and discomfort towards

Nicholas Adams ticking off other things to go on. ?He cannot marry. He cannot

marry,? he said angrily.(69) The major is acting like a father, but is

starting to get frustrated that he has now lost his wife and feels lonely. This

is jeopardizing his pride of being a real man. ?I would not be rude. My wife

has just died. You must forgive me.?(70) At this point, there is nothing the

major can do to completely regain his fearless outer looks, but with express of

regret, the major is starting to regain manhood in another sense. Adams who is

now starting to understand what a real man is, recognizes that this situation is

very difficult for the general with this quote, ?Oh-, I am sorry so

sorry?(70). The major is a wounded man trying to save himself from the

disorder he currently holds. The frustration and uneasiness expressed towards

Adams was a way for the major to regain is manhood that lost when his wife had

died. ?And then crying, his head up looking at nothing, carrying himself

straight and soldierly, with tears on his cheeks and biting his lips, he walked

past the machines and out the door.? (70) The major at the end shows his broad

soldiers and walks out with dignity. Once a man wounded with frustrations, but

now a wounded major with only dignity and respect from others. Ernest Hemingway

portrays his characters with wounds of mental and physical disorders but proves

them to be deep and conscious people with pride and respect for themselves and

others. The old man, Schatz the boy, and the major all were wounded men of

difficulties life had threw at them but in the most simple to difficult

situations, the men show pride. The degree of self-respect to others to prove to

themselves and their peers that they are truly men, no fear of deafness, no fear

of death and no fear of love could set these men into a rage. It is obvious

these men have wounds but hard to realize that their nature of man cannot

separate the ease of awkwardness. All three are hurt but will continue has the

great men they are meant to be.

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