Ernest Hemingway’s Portrayal of Masculinity Essay -- Hemingway Code He

Ernest Hemingways Portrayal of Masculinity When thinking of masculinity in literature, one author has who has become synonymous with adult maleliness comes to mind, Ernest Hemingway. Critics have washed-out countless hours studying his writing in order to gain sixth sense into his universe of discourse of manly delights, including his views on sex, war, and sport. His views can be seen through his characters, his themes and raze his style of writing. The characters in Hemingways stories reveal much about how he feels about men and the role they should play in society. Most of Hemingways male characters can be split into one of two groups. The world-class of which is the Code Hero. This is the tough, macho guy who chooses to live his life by followers a code of honor, courage, chivalry, honestly, and the ability to bear pain with resistance and dignity, and does not whine when thwarted (Scott, 217). This molar is Hemingways pattern man, whom every man should want to become. Robert Penn Warren writes of the code hired gun Hemingways heroes are not squealers, welchers, compromisers, or cowards, and when they confront defeat they realize that the stance they take, the stoic endurance, the stiff pep pill lip means a kind of victory. If they are to be defeated they are defeated upon their own terms some of them have tied(p) courted their defeat and certainly they have maintained, even in the practical defeat, an ideal of themselves some definition of how a man should behave, formulated or unformulated by which they have lived. They represent some caprice of a code, some notion of honor, that makes a man a man, and that distinguishes him from people who merely follow their ergodic impulses and who are, by consequence, messy. (Warren, 79) Hemingway also seems to associate acts of violence with masculinity. Nathan Scott Jr. writes of Hemingways manliest characters whatever they do, whether it be bullfighting or fishing or prizefighting or lookup lions in the African bush or blowing up bridges as a military saboteur is done with consummate skill and with fleece of craft they are tough and competent they can be counted on in a tight squeeze, and they do not cheat or squeal or flinch at the prospect of danger. (Scott, 217) Examples of the code hero in Hemingways work include Manuel the bullfighter, in The Undefeated he fights with a noble dignity even when he is je... ...lso the idea that because the hero lives by his code, he is able to live properly in the world of violence, disorder, and misery in which he inhabits (Baker, 15). The young waiter who hopes to one-day become a noble bullfighter in The Capital of the World illustrates this point. After performing gallantly, he takes his defeat with a sense of pride and chivalry allowing him to fail the only real death in Hemingways mind, the death of a real man. Sources Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway A Life Story. New York Scribners, 1969. Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in t he American Novel. New York Criterion Books, 1960. 304-09. Strychancz, Thomas. The Sort of Thing You Never Should Admit. Boys foolt Cry Rethinking Narratives of Masculinity and Emotion in the US. Eds. Millette Shamir, Jennifer Travis. New York capital of South Carolina University Press. 2002. 140-72. Wagner, Linda Welshimer, Ed. Ernest Hemingway Five Decades of Criticism. Michigan State University Press, 1974. Holder, Alan. The Other Hemingway. Wagner. 103-08. Scott, Nathan, Jr. Ernest Hemingway, A comminuted Essay. Wagner. 210-18. Warren, Robert Penn. Ernest Hemingway. Wagner. 77-101.