User:JBawlson/sandbox: Difference between revisions
→The Disturbing as Artistic Duty: added page number |
|||
| (19 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
{{MR04}} | {{MR04}} | ||
{{Working}} <!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE --> | {{Working}} <!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE --> | ||
{{BYLINE|last=SANDERS|first=Jaime L.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr04sanders|abstract|mailer has been...uniform edition.|This paper served me...to participate.}} | {{BYLINE | ||
|last=SANDERS | |||
|first=Jaime L. | |||
|url=https://prmlr.us/mr04sanders | |||
|abstract | |||
|mailer has been...uniform edition. | |||
|This paper served me...to participate. | |||
}} | |||
== Introduction to Influence and Philosophy == | == Introduction to Influence and Philosophy == | ||
'''<big> | '''<big>N</big>orman Mailer once said he didn’t have the kind of talent that Ernest Hemingway had—the kind that could reach a nation'''. But his work reveals otherwise. Though Mailer often downplayed Hemingway’s influence, a deeper look shows just how profoundly Hemingway shaped Mailer’s philosophy of writing and life. Both authors didn’t just write; they wanted their words to disturb, to awaken, and to transform the reader’s understanding of life, death, and art.For Hemingway, great writing meant telling “honestly the things I have found true” (Death in the Afternoon 2). Mailer echoed this ethos, writing “to the limit of one’s honesty” and even scraping off a little dishonesty to get to what he called a “point of purity” (“The Hazards and Sources of Writing” 399). For both authors, honesty wasn’t just a stylistic preference—it was a moral imperative.This demand for truth meant writing about all aspects of life: the beautiful, the brutal, and the downright disturbing. Hemingway put it bluntly: “If it is all beautiful you can’t believe in it” (Baker 153). Mailer agreed, emphasizing that a writer’s role is to disturb—not through shock value, but by exposing the raw roots of human experience (Foster 40).Why did Hemingway and Mailer fixate on death, war, and violence? Because, to them, life includes darkness—and ignoring it would be dishonest. Mailer argued that life, if seen clearly, is disturbing. Hemingway wanted his readers to experience life “as it really is,” not as society prettifies it. Both believed literature’s job was to break through illusions and expand readers’ perceptions.Sanders’ article beautifully aligns both writers with existentialism. Their writing isn’t just about storytelling; it’s about facing death and choosing meaning. Hemingway found his artistic center in the bullfight—where mortality and immortality collided. Mailer found his in the psychological space of violent death, as explored in An American Dream.Existentialists argue that death can reveal how to live. Facing it forces individuals to live more authentically. For Hemingway and Mailer, this confrontation was essential to becoming an artist and a human being. The writer’s job was not just to reflect the world but to clarify it to reveal life’s wholeness and urge the reader to live deliberately.In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway compares the artist to the matador—daily confronting death to create meaning. Mailer takes this metaphor into a darker, modernized setting in An American Dream, where protagonist Rojack studies executions, battles suicidal thoughts, and struggles for personal authenticity.Their characters don’t just witness death—they internalize it, wrestle with it, and use it to forge a self. Mailer’s Rojack, like Hemingway’s matador, becomes a symbolic figure of resistance against cultural conformity and spiritual deadness.Both authors saw literature as a weapon against cultural stagnation. Hemingway urged readers to break free from what they were taught to feel and create their own standards (Death 5, 10). Mailer put it succinctly: literature should “clarify a nation’s vision of itself” (Cannibals and Christians 98).This is not a passive project. It’s revolutionary. Mailer’s brand of existentialism, infused with American grit and spirituality, aimed to shake readers into greater awareness. Hemingway did the same, albeit with a more stoic subtlety. | ||
{{pg|351|}} | |||
For Hemingway, great writing meant telling “honestly the things I have found true” (Death in the Afternoon 2). Mailer echoed this ethos, writing “to the limit of one’s honesty” and even scraping off a little dishonesty to get to what he called a “point of purity” (“The Hazards and Sources of Writing” 399). For both authors, honesty wasn’t just a stylistic preference—it was a moral imperative. | |||
This demand for truth meant writing about all aspects of life: the beautiful, the brutal, and the downright disturbing. Hemingway put it bluntly: “If it is all beautiful you can’t believe in it” (Baker 153). Mailer agreed, emphasizing that a writer’s role is to disturb—not through shock value, but by exposing the raw roots of human experience (Foster 40). | |||
Why did Hemingway and Mailer fixate on death, war, and violence? Because, to them, life includes darkness—and ignoring it would be dishonest. Mailer argued that life, if seen clearly, is disturbing. Hemingway wanted his readers to experience life “as it really is,” not as society prettifies it. Both believed literature’s job was to break through illusions and expand readers’ perceptions. | |||
Sanders’ article beautifully aligns both writers with existentialism. Their writing isn’t just about storytelling; it’s about facing death and choosing meaning. Hemingway found his artistic center in the bullfight—where mortality and immortality collided. Mailer found his in the psychological space of violent death, as explored in An American Dream. | |||
Existentialists argue that death can reveal how to live. Facing it forces individuals to live more authentically. For Hemingway and Mailer, this confrontation was essential to becoming an artist and a human being. The writer’s job was not just to reflect the world but to clarify it to reveal life’s wholeness and urge the reader to live deliberately. | |||
In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway compares the artist to the matador—daily confronting death to create meaning. Mailer takes this metaphor into a darker, modernized setting in An American Dream, where protagonist Rojack studies executions, battles suicidal thoughts, and struggles for personal authenticity. | |||
Their characters don’t just witness death—they internalize it, wrestle with it, and use it to forge a self. Mailer’s Rojack, like Hemingway’s matador, becomes a symbolic figure of resistance against cultural conformity and spiritual deadness. | |||
Both authors saw literature as a weapon against cultural stagnation. Hemingway urged readers to break free from what they were taught to feel and create their own standards (Death 5, 10). Mailer put it succinctly: literature should “clarify a nation’s vision of itself” (Cannibals and Christians 98). | |||
This is not a passive project. It’s revolutionary. Mailer’s brand of existentialism, infused with American grit and spirituality, aimed to shake readers into greater awareness. Hemingway did the same, albeit with a more stoic subtlety. | |||
{{pg| | |||
== The Disturbing as Artistic Duty == | == The Disturbing as Artistic Duty == | ||
Although critics often misunderstood Hemingway and Mailer’s obsession with death, their work was never about glorifying violence—it was about confronting reality. They rejected the comforts of illusion and asked readers to do the same. | Although critics often misunderstood Hemingway and Mailer’s obsession with death, their work was never about glorifying violence—it was about confronting reality. They rejected the comforts of illusion and asked readers to do the same.Mailer may have felt he couldn’t match Hemingway’s reach, but Sanders argues—and rightly so that An American Dream proves otherwise. In fact, by Hemingway’s own definition of a great artist one who takes what has been known and “goes beyond to make something of his own” (Death 100) Mailer earned his place as a guide and prophet for his generation.For existential thinkers, death is not the end—it's a mirror. Hemingway and Mailer use this mirror to inspire art. Death urges individuals to examine life as a whole, not just as fleeting moments. That "whole" gives life meaning, and it’s what both authors chase in their writing.Hemingway’s bullfight captures this unity of life, death, and immortality. Mailer, meanwhile, looks for it in personal and cultural violence. In both cases, death becomes the key to authenticity.True artistry, Hemingway believed, involves stating the “real thing” purely enough that it endures forever. This blend of the eternal and the immediate defines his mission. Mailer mirrors this, understanding that art must express something lasting—even if it emerges from a specific, time-bound experience.Their existentialism isn’t abstract. It’s felt in every line, every scene, every confrontation with death. The artist becomes the author not just of work, but of life. | ||
Mailer may have felt he couldn’t match Hemingway’s reach, but Sanders argues—and rightly so that An American Dream proves otherwise. In fact, by Hemingway’s own definition of a great artist one who takes what has been known and “goes beyond to make something of his own” (Death 100) Mailer earned his place as a guide and prophet for his generation. | |||
For existential thinkers, death is not the end—it's a mirror. Hemingway and Mailer use this mirror to inspire art. Death urges individuals to examine life as a whole, not just as fleeting moments. That "whole" gives life meaning, and it’s what both authors chase in their writing.Hemingway’s bullfight captures this unity of life, death, and immortality. Mailer, meanwhile, looks for it in personal and cultural violence. In both cases, death becomes the key to authenticity. | |||
True artistry, Hemingway believed, involves stating the “real thing” purely enough that it endures forever. This blend of the eternal and the immediate defines his mission. Mailer mirrors this, understanding that art must express something lasting—even if it emerges from a specific, time-bound experience.Their existentialism isn’t abstract. It’s felt in every line, every scene, every confrontation with death. The artist becomes the author not just of work, but of life. | |||
{{pg|352|}} | {{pg|352|}} | ||
== Art, Anxiety, and Mortality == | == Art, Anxiety, and Mortality == | ||
Mailer called it the “existential state” of the novelist. To write truthfully, a writer must risk annihilation—of reputation, ability, or even sanity. Hemingway knew this well. His matador faced death in the ring; the artist faces it on the page. | Mailer called it the “existential state” of the novelist. To write truthfully, a writer must risk annihilation—of reputation, ability, or even sanity. Hemingway knew this well. His matador faced death in the ring; the artist faces it on the page.Each book is a test: Can I still write? Do I still matter? In that anxiety lives the chance for greatness.Hemingway and Mailer weren’t just concerned with aesthetics—they were cultural critics. Their works challenge the norms of capitalist America, where identity is shaped by profit and conformity. They expose a society that deadens creativity and encourages self-deception.Their answer? Create an art that wakes people up. Show life as it really is, even if it disturbs.Critics accused Hemingway and Mailer of glamorizing death. In truth, their use of violence was deeply philosophical. They believed the cultural obsession with superficial success killed individuality.Mailer’s Rojack, like Hemingway’s matador, must face death to break from the lie. Their works confront readers with uncomfortable truths: the death of authenticity, of imagination, of self.Mailer doesn’t just borrow ideas—he channels Hemingway’s spirit directly into his novel An American Dream. The character Rojack, haunted by death and shaped by war, walks a path strikingly similar to Hemingway’s own.Even Rojack’s wounds recall Hemingway’s wartime injury. But unlike Hemingway’s characters, Rojack’s injury is existential as much as physical. He’s split between performance and truth, public life and private emptiness. Rojack isn’t just a man—he’s a mask. He’s a war hero, a politician, a husband. But behind each role is a void. The war haunts him, not with glory, but with guilt. One look in the eyes of a man he killed convinces him: death isn’t emptiness. It’s truth.That truth drives him to reject his public identity and search for something real—something earned, not assigned.Where Hemingway turned to the bullring, Rojack chooses the execution chamber. Both settings allow them to explore death not as concept, but as experience. What does it mean to witness a life end? How does that change the one who watches? Rojack’s psychological and spiritual descent parallels Hemingway’s bullfighters—brushing close to mortality to find meaning. Rojack concludes that death, dread, and even magic are the real motivators of life. His study turns into something larger: an attempt to make sense of existence through mortality. Here, Sanders draws a clear line from Kierkegaard’s fear of living “in vanity” to Rojack’s fear that he has wasted his life pretending. If death makes us feel, then art helps us respond. Rojack’s confession is raw: his parts don’t add up to a whole. Without Deborah, his wife and his societal anchor, he’s just another face in the crowd. But with her, he’s compromised.This paradox drives him toward existential crisis. To live truthfully, he must break free from what sustains his public life. As Hemingway said of art: every part, if true, reflects the whole. | ||
{{pg|353|}} | |||
Each book is a test: Can I still write? Do I still matter? In that anxiety lives the chance for greatness. | |||
Hemingway and Mailer weren’t just concerned with aesthetics—they were cultural critics. Their works challenge the norms of capitalist America, where identity is shaped by profit and conformity. They expose a society that deadens creativity and encourages self-deception. | |||
Their answer? Create an art that wakes people up. Show life as it really is, even if it disturbs. | |||
Critics accused Hemingway and Mailer of glamorizing death. In truth, their use of violence was deeply philosophical. They believed the cultural obsession with superficial success killed individuality. | |||
Mailer’s Rojack, like Hemingway’s matador, must face death to break from the lie. Their works confront readers with uncomfortable truths: the death of authenticity, of imagination, of self. | |||
Mailer doesn’t just borrow ideas—he channels Hemingway’s spirit directly into his novel An American Dream. The character Rojack, haunted by death and shaped by war, walks a path strikingly similar to Hemingway’s own. | |||
Even Rojack’s wounds recall Hemingway’s wartime injury. But unlike Hemingway’s characters, Rojack’s injury is existential as much as physical. He’s split between performance and truth, public life and private emptiness. | |||
Rojack isn’t just a man—he’s a mask. He’s a war hero, a politician, a husband. But behind each role is a void. The war haunts him, not with glory, but with guilt. One look in the eyes of a man he killed convinces him: death isn’t emptiness. It’s truth. | |||
That truth drives him to reject his public identity and search for something real—something earned, not assigned. | |||
Where Hemingway turned to the bullring, Rojack chooses the execution chamber. Both settings allow them to explore death not as concept, but as experience. What does it mean to witness a life end? How does that change the one who watches? | |||
Rojack’s psychological and spiritual descent parallels Hemingway’s bullfighters—brushing close to mortality to find meaning. | |||
Rojack concludes that death, dread, and even magic are the real motivators of life. His study turns into something larger: an attempt to make sense of existence through mortality. | |||
Here, Sanders draws a clear line from Kierkegaard’s fear of living “in vanity” to Rojack’s fear that he has wasted his life pretending. If death makes us feel, then art helps us respond. | |||
Rojack’s confession is raw: his parts don’t add up to a whole. Without Deborah, his wife and his societal anchor, he’s just another face in the crowd. But with her, he’s compromised. | |||
== The Illusion of the American Dream == | == The Illusion of the American Dream == | ||
Deborah isn’t just a woman—she’s a symbol of status, power, and inauthenticity. She’s the American Dream incarnate: seductive, powerful, destructive. To be free, Rojack must escape her. But she’s not letting go. | Deborah isn’t just a woman—she’s a symbol of status, power, and inauthenticity. She’s the American Dream incarnate: seductive, powerful, destructive. To be free, Rojack must escape her. But she’s not letting go.Their dynamic becomes a war—not just of people, but of philosophies. It’s not just man versus woman. It’s self versus system.In a surreal twist, Rojack compares Deborah’s rage to that of a charging bull. Their confrontation becomes a psychological bullfight. He becomes the matador. She, the threat to his very selfhood.The scene mimics Hemingway’s bullring: raw, brutal, spiritual. When Rojack “kills” Deborah, it’s not just murder—it’s a symbolic break from illusion. His liberation is disturbing, but intentional.After the act, Rojack sees “heaven.” He describes emotional waves—hatred, illness, nausea—leaving his body. What’s left is clarity. Just like Hemingway’s “moment of truth,” Mailer stages a moment of transcendence.This isn’t an endorsement of violence. It’s existential metaphor: the old self must die for the new self to emerge. That’s the price of freedom. Mailer once said he couldn’t reach people like Hemingway. But his novel An American Dream proves otherwise. He takes Hemingway’s existential vision and reshapes it for a new age—one of media, masks, and moral chaos. By Hemingway’s own standards, Mailer succeeds. He uses the tools of the past to create something personal, painful, and new. In doing so, he earns the title of “great artist” and becomes a guide for his own lost generation. | ||
{{pg|354|}} | |||
Their dynamic becomes a war—not just of people, but of philosophies. It’s not just man versus woman. It’s self versus system. | == Works Cited == | ||
Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. | |||
In a surreal twist, Rojack compares Deborah’s rage to that of a charging bull. Their confrontation becomes a psychological bullfight. He becomes the matador. She, the threat to his very selfhood. | Mailer, Norman. An American Dream. New York: Dial Press, 1965. | ||
Mailer, Norman. Cannibals and Christians. New York: Dial Press, 1966. | |||
The scene mimics Hemingway’s bullring: raw, brutal, spiritual. When Rojack “kills” Deborah, it’s not just murder—it’s a symbolic break from illusion. His liberation is disturbing, but intentional. | Sanders, J’aime L. “Death, Art and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing.” The Mailer Review, vol. 4, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–21. | ||
After the act, Rojack sees “heaven.” He describes emotional waves—hatred, illness, nausea—leaving his body. What’s left is clarity. Just like Hemingway’s “moment of truth,” Mailer stages a moment of transcendence. | |||
This isn’t an endorsement of violence. It’s existential metaphor: the old self must die for the new self to emerge. That’s the price of freedom. | |||
Mailer once said he couldn’t reach people like Hemingway. But his novel An American Dream proves otherwise. He takes Hemingway’s existential vision and reshapes it for a new age—one of media, masks, and moral chaos. | |||
By Hemingway’s own standards, Mailer succeeds. He uses the tools of the past to create something personal, painful, and new. In doing so, he earns the title of “great artist” and becomes a guide for his own lost generation. | |||
Latest revision as of 19:02, 1 May 2025
 |
| « | The Mailer Review • Volume 4 Number 1 • 2010 • Literary Warriors | » |
 | This page, “sandbox,” is currently Under Construction. It was last revised by the editor JBawlson on 2025-05-1. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to have the page completed soon. If you have a question or comment, please post a discussion thread. (Find out how to remove this banner.) |
J'aimé L. Sanders
Abstract: An exploration of Hemingway’s influence on Mailer’s existentialism and his philosophy of art, focusing on the aspects of their commensurate interest in the violent and disturbing as it relates to their philosophies of writing and art, and reveals how both writers put their existentially founded philosophies in motion in order to teach readers how to live in the highly modern and post-modernized consumer culture both authors question and reject throughout their canon of works.
URL: https://prmlr.us/mr04sanders)
Introduction to Influence and Philosophy
Norman Mailer once said he didn’t have the kind of talent that Ernest Hemingway had—the kind that could reach a nation. But his work reveals otherwise. Though Mailer often downplayed Hemingway’s influence, a deeper look shows just how profoundly Hemingway shaped Mailer’s philosophy of writing and life. Both authors didn’t just write; they wanted their words to disturb, to awaken, and to transform the reader’s understanding of life, death, and art.For Hemingway, great writing meant telling “honestly the things I have found true” (Death in the Afternoon 2). Mailer echoed this ethos, writing “to the limit of one’s honesty” and even scraping off a little dishonesty to get to what he called a “point of purity” (“The Hazards and Sources of Writing” 399). For both authors, honesty wasn’t just a stylistic preference—it was a moral imperative.This demand for truth meant writing about all aspects of life: the beautiful, the brutal, and the downright disturbing. Hemingway put it bluntly: “If it is all beautiful you can’t believe in it” (Baker 153). Mailer agreed, emphasizing that a writer’s role is to disturb—not through shock value, but by exposing the raw roots of human experience (Foster 40).Why did Hemingway and Mailer fixate on death, war, and violence? Because, to them, life includes darkness—and ignoring it would be dishonest. Mailer argued that life, if seen clearly, is disturbing. Hemingway wanted his readers to experience life “as it really is,” not as society prettifies it. Both believed literature’s job was to break through illusions and expand readers’ perceptions.Sanders’ article beautifully aligns both writers with existentialism. Their writing isn’t just about storytelling; it’s about facing death and choosing meaning. Hemingway found his artistic center in the bullfight—where mortality and immortality collided. Mailer found his in the psychological space of violent death, as explored in An American Dream.Existentialists argue that death can reveal how to live. Facing it forces individuals to live more authentically. For Hemingway and Mailer, this confrontation was essential to becoming an artist and a human being. The writer’s job was not just to reflect the world but to clarify it to reveal life’s wholeness and urge the reader to live deliberately.In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway compares the artist to the matador—daily confronting death to create meaning. Mailer takes this metaphor into a darker, modernized setting in An American Dream, where protagonist Rojack studies executions, battles suicidal thoughts, and struggles for personal authenticity.Their characters don’t just witness death—they internalize it, wrestle with it, and use it to forge a self. Mailer’s Rojack, like Hemingway’s matador, becomes a symbolic figure of resistance against cultural conformity and spiritual deadness.Both authors saw literature as a weapon against cultural stagnation. Hemingway urged readers to break free from what they were taught to feel and create their own standards (Death 5, 10). Mailer put it succinctly: literature should “clarify a nation’s vision of itself” (Cannibals and Christians 98).This is not a passive project. It’s revolutionary. Mailer’s brand of existentialism, infused with American grit and spirituality, aimed to shake readers into greater awareness. Hemingway did the same, albeit with a more stoic subtlety.
page 351
The Disturbing as Artistic Duty
Although critics often misunderstood Hemingway and Mailer’s obsession with death, their work was never about glorifying violence—it was about confronting reality. They rejected the comforts of illusion and asked readers to do the same.Mailer may have felt he couldn’t match Hemingway’s reach, but Sanders argues—and rightly so that An American Dream proves otherwise. In fact, by Hemingway’s own definition of a great artist one who takes what has been known and “goes beyond to make something of his own” (Death 100) Mailer earned his place as a guide and prophet for his generation.For existential thinkers, death is not the end—it's a mirror. Hemingway and Mailer use this mirror to inspire art. Death urges individuals to examine life as a whole, not just as fleeting moments. That "whole" gives life meaning, and it’s what both authors chase in their writing.Hemingway’s bullfight captures this unity of life, death, and immortality. Mailer, meanwhile, looks for it in personal and cultural violence. In both cases, death becomes the key to authenticity.True artistry, Hemingway believed, involves stating the “real thing” purely enough that it endures forever. This blend of the eternal and the immediate defines his mission. Mailer mirrors this, understanding that art must express something lasting—even if it emerges from a specific, time-bound experience.Their existentialism isn’t abstract. It’s felt in every line, every scene, every confrontation with death. The artist becomes the author not just of work, but of life.
page 352
Art, Anxiety, and Mortality
Mailer called it the “existential state” of the novelist. To write truthfully, a writer must risk annihilation—of reputation, ability, or even sanity. Hemingway knew this well. His matador faced death in the ring; the artist faces it on the page.Each book is a test: Can I still write? Do I still matter? In that anxiety lives the chance for greatness.Hemingway and Mailer weren’t just concerned with aesthetics—they were cultural critics. Their works challenge the norms of capitalist America, where identity is shaped by profit and conformity. They expose a society that deadens creativity and encourages self-deception.Their answer? Create an art that wakes people up. Show life as it really is, even if it disturbs.Critics accused Hemingway and Mailer of glamorizing death. In truth, their use of violence was deeply philosophical. They believed the cultural obsession with superficial success killed individuality.Mailer’s Rojack, like Hemingway’s matador, must face death to break from the lie. Their works confront readers with uncomfortable truths: the death of authenticity, of imagination, of self.Mailer doesn’t just borrow ideas—he channels Hemingway’s spirit directly into his novel An American Dream. The character Rojack, haunted by death and shaped by war, walks a path strikingly similar to Hemingway’s own.Even Rojack’s wounds recall Hemingway’s wartime injury. But unlike Hemingway’s characters, Rojack’s injury is existential as much as physical. He’s split between performance and truth, public life and private emptiness. Rojack isn’t just a man—he’s a mask. He’s a war hero, a politician, a husband. But behind each role is a void. The war haunts him, not with glory, but with guilt. One look in the eyes of a man he killed convinces him: death isn’t emptiness. It’s truth.That truth drives him to reject his public identity and search for something real—something earned, not assigned.Where Hemingway turned to the bullring, Rojack chooses the execution chamber. Both settings allow them to explore death not as concept, but as experience. What does it mean to witness a life end? How does that change the one who watches? Rojack’s psychological and spiritual descent parallels Hemingway’s bullfighters—brushing close to mortality to find meaning. Rojack concludes that death, dread, and even magic are the real motivators of life. His study turns into something larger: an attempt to make sense of existence through mortality. Here, Sanders draws a clear line from Kierkegaard’s fear of living “in vanity” to Rojack’s fear that he has wasted his life pretending. If death makes us feel, then art helps us respond. Rojack’s confession is raw: his parts don’t add up to a whole. Without Deborah, his wife and his societal anchor, he’s just another face in the crowd. But with her, he’s compromised.This paradox drives him toward existential crisis. To live truthfully, he must break free from what sustains his public life. As Hemingway said of art: every part, if true, reflects the whole.
page 353
The Illusion of the American Dream
Deborah isn’t just a woman—she’s a symbol of status, power, and inauthenticity. She’s the American Dream incarnate: seductive, powerful, destructive. To be free, Rojack must escape her. But she’s not letting go.Their dynamic becomes a war—not just of people, but of philosophies. It’s not just man versus woman. It’s self versus system.In a surreal twist, Rojack compares Deborah’s rage to that of a charging bull. Their confrontation becomes a psychological bullfight. He becomes the matador. She, the threat to his very selfhood.The scene mimics Hemingway’s bullring: raw, brutal, spiritual. When Rojack “kills” Deborah, it’s not just murder—it’s a symbolic break from illusion. His liberation is disturbing, but intentional.After the act, Rojack sees “heaven.” He describes emotional waves—hatred, illness, nausea—leaving his body. What’s left is clarity. Just like Hemingway’s “moment of truth,” Mailer stages a moment of transcendence.This isn’t an endorsement of violence. It’s existential metaphor: the old self must die for the new self to emerge. That’s the price of freedom. Mailer once said he couldn’t reach people like Hemingway. But his novel An American Dream proves otherwise. He takes Hemingway’s existential vision and reshapes it for a new age—one of media, masks, and moral chaos. By Hemingway’s own standards, Mailer succeeds. He uses the tools of the past to create something personal, painful, and new. In doing so, he earns the title of “great artist” and becomes a guide for his own lost generation.
page 354
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Mailer, Norman. An American Dream. New York: Dial Press, 1965. Mailer, Norman. Cannibals and Christians. New York: Dial Press, 1966. Sanders, J’aime L. “Death, Art and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing.” The Mailer Review, vol. 4, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–21.