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

Ernest Hemingways Portrayal of Masculinity When intellection of masculinity in literature, one author has who has become synonymous with manfulness comes to mind, Ernest Hemingway. Critics have spent countless hours studying his writing in range to gain insight into his world of manly delights, including his views on sex, war, and sport. His views preempt be seen through his characters, his themes and even his style of writing. The characters in Hemingways stories reveal a lot 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 first of which is the Code Hero. This is the tough, macho guy who chooses to live his behavior by following a code of honor, courage, chivalry, honestly, and the ability to bear inconvenience with resistance and dignity, and does non whine when defeated (Scott, 217). This hero is Hemingways exemplification man, whom every man should want to become. Robert P enn Warren writes of the code hero Hemingways heroes be not squealers, welchers, compromisers, or cowards, and when they confront defeat they realize that the stance they take, the stoic endurance, the stiff upper lip means a kind of victory. If they ar to be defeated they are defeated upon their own terms several(prenominal) of them have even 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, formulate or unformulated by which they have lived. They represent some notion of a code, some notion of honor, that makes a man a man, and that distinguishes him from people who alone follow their random 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 hunting lions in the A frican bush or blowing up bridges as a military saboteur is done with action skill and with dress 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 fit 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 correctly in the world of violence, disorder, and misery in which he inhabits (Baker, 15). The young server who hopes to one-day become a noble bullfighter in The Capital of the earth illustrates this point. After performing gallantly, he takes his defeat with a sense of pride and chivalry allowing him to die 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. approve and Death in the American Novel. New York Criterion Books, 1960. 304-09. Strychancz, Thomas. The Sort of issue You Never Should Admit. Boys Dont Cry Rethinking Narratives of Masculinity and Emotion in the US. Eds. Millette Shamir, Jennifer Travis. New York Columbia 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, junior Ernest Hemingway, A Critical Essay. Wagner. 210-18. Warren, Robert Penn. Ernest Hemingway. Wagner. 77-101.