User:Sherrilledwards/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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It is easy to list God-language in Hemingway: deciding significance is harder. The title of ''In Our Time''{{sfn|Hemingway|1925}} came perhaps unconsciously from an English Prayer: “Give us peace in our time, O Lord” (1928 31).{{sfn|1993}} {{efn|“Give us peace in our time, O Lord” can be found in the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer,{{sfn|1993|p=31}} but presumably Hemingway knew it from the 1662 English BCP. Significantly, peace and Lord are not in Hemingway’s title: certainly, his parents saw little traditional faith in this work. In 1932, Hemingway admits “Ezra Pound discovered I lifted from the English Book of Common Prayer.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1984|p=90}}}} In this work, however, there is little overt God-language, maybe the awkwardness of Krebs with his mother’s sentimentalism in a “A Soldier’s Home”{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=76}} or the unnamed soldier’s fearful bargaining with God in the accompanying vignette.{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=67}} Perhaps the final story, “Big Two-Hearted River,” with Nick Adams dealing with an indeterminate trauma by returning to Nature, has echoes of Genesis in its simple declarative sentences, “It was a good camp” and “It was a good feeling."{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=147}} The fragment, “Scared stiff looking at it,"{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=21}} could be seen as a ''signifier'' of modernism, much as the final words of Kurtz, “The horror, the horror”{{sfn|Conrad|2008|p=178}} from ''Heart of Darkness.'' Conrad’s words, Cedric Watts suggests, “serve as a thematic nexus, a climatic but highly ambiguous utterance which sums up, without resolving, several of the paradoxical themes of the tale."{{sfn|Conrad|2008|p=215}} A quarter century later, Hemingway’s ''In Our Time'' offers yet another such thematic nexus.

In The Sun Also Rises,{{sfn|Hemingway|1926}} two themes are balanced. One epigraph,“You are all a lost generation,” from Gertrude Stein, suggests that the narrative is a war novel, although the war seems absent. The other epigraph from Ecclesiastes, perhaps the most secular passage in the bible, includes the words, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth {{pg|335|336}}abideth for ever."{{sfn|1926|p=Ecc. 1.4–7}} This theme, the continuation of the earth, is a metonymy for the continuation of humanity. Linda Wagner-Martin suggests this theme “maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}{{efn|“Considering the two epigraphs in tandem, no reader could stay focused for long on the ‘lost generation’ image. The tone of the second epigraph is clearly positive; it is much longer; it maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}}} but presumably Hemingway knew it from the 1662 English BCP. Significantly, peace and Lord are not in Hemingway’s title: certainly, his parents saw little traditional faith in this work. In 1932, Hemingway admits “Ezra Pound discovered I lifted from the English Book of Common Prayer.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1984|p=90}}}}10 Maybe this motif is an attenuated form of providence.

In ''The Sun Also Rises,''{{sfn|Hemingway|1926}} two themes are balanced. One epigraph,“You are all a lost generation,” from Gertrude Stein, suggests that the narrative is a war novel, although the war seems absent. The other epigraph from Ecclesiastes, perhaps the most secular passage in the bible, includes the words, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth {{pg|335|336}}abideth for ever."{{sfn|1926|p=Ecc. 1.4–7}} This theme, the continuation of the earth, is a metonymy for the continuation of humanity. Linda Wagner-Martin suggests this theme “maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}{{efn|“Considering the two epigraphs in tandem, no reader could stay focused for long on the ‘lost generation’ image. The tone of the second epigraph is clearly positive; it is much longer; it maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}}} but presumably Hemingway knew it from the 1662 English BCP. Significantly, peace and Lord are not in Hemingway’s title: certainly, his parents saw little traditional faith in this work. In 1932, Hemingway admits “Ezra Pound discovered I lifted from the English Book of Common Prayer.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1984|p=90}}}}10 Maybe this motif is an attenuated form of providence.

There is a kind of balance in Jake and Brett’s conversation following the Romero ''debacle.'' Brett’s decision “not to be a bitch” represents she claims, “sort of what we have instead of God."{{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=249}} Jake counters, “Some people have God, quite a lot,” but Brett replies, “He never worked very well with me."{{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=249}} The famous ending is poised among irony, ambiguity, and pessimism. Partly a verdict on Jake and Brett’s tragic relationship, it becomes a larger evaluation of life. With Brett, we like to believe we can have “a damned good time;" {{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=251}} we hope the world is a place of order. But in answer, the novel offers only indeterminacy: a delicate balance between covert God-language and hard-boiled modernism. We are left with Jake’s summary: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?" {{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=251}}

A Farewell to Arms{{sfn|Hemingway|1929}} marks a new skepticism, with Hemingway’s famous dismissal of war’s high diction as “obscene.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1929|p=185}} It was also a low point for Hemingway, considering his divorce from Hadley in 1927 and his father’s suicide in 1928. As Reynolds argues, Hemingway frames the Italian retreat from Caporetto as a synecdoche of a larger human defeat.{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=274}} This, says Reynolds, was the “final conclusion” of the war generation {{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}{{efn|“Some discovered such a truth in the trenches during the war; others discovered it in war prisons or in front of firing squads.Hemingway did not finally understand it until ten years after the war.”{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}}} But what of the priest in A Farewell to Arms: is the Abruzzi a kind of sacred space? It might be, butHenry cannot seem to get there. As a modern man, he seems to be “banished.”{{sfn|Civello|1994|p=78}}{{efn|“The Abruzzi, however, is an anomaly in the modern world, and the Christian order it represents no longer exists beyond its boundaries. Frederick Henry, the epitome of the modern displaced hero, yearns nostalgically for that ‘other country’ yet finds himself ‘banished’ from it by his own modern sensibilities." {{sfn|Civello|1994|p=77-78}}}} Heroism still exists, but the irrationality of modern warfare—or the cruelty of ~~Fate— renders~~ it tragically absurd. Toward the end, we read

''A Farewell to Arms''{{sfn|Hemingway|1929}} marks a new skepticism, with Hemingway’s famous dismissal of war’s high diction as “obscene.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1929|p=185}} It was also a low point for Hemingway, considering his divorce from Hadley in 1927 and his father’s suicide in 1928. As Reynolds argues, Hemingway frames the Italian retreat from Caporetto as a ''synecdoche'' of a larger human defeat.{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=274}} This, says Reynolds, was the “final conclusion” of the war generation {{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}{{efn|“Some discovered such a truth in the trenches during the war; others discovered it in war prisons or in front of firing squads. Hemingway did not finally understand it until ten years after the war.”{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}}} But what of the priest in ''A Farewell to Arms:'' is the Abruzzi a kind of sacred space? It might be, butHenry cannot seem to get there. As a modern man, he seems to be “banished.”{{sfn|Civello|1994|p=78}}{{efn|“The Abruzzi, however, is an anomaly in the modern world, and the Christian order it represents no longer exists beyond its boundaries. Frederick Henry, the epitome of the modern displaced hero, yearns nostalgically for that ‘other country’ yet finds himself ‘banished’ from it by his own modern sensibilities." {{sfn|Civello|1994|p=77-78}}}} Heroism still exists, but the irrationality of modern warfare—or the cruelty of Fate—renders it tragically absurd. Toward the end, we read

<blockquote>If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. {{sfn|Hemingway|1929|p=249}} </blockquote>

There is a foreshadowing of Catherine’s death, but the words have more resonance

as a statement on human destiny.Yes, there may be a rumor of grace

as a statement on human destiny. Yes, there may be a rumor of grace

in the phrase, “many are strong at the broken places,” but the pervasive tone{{pg|336|337}} is bleak. There seems an ''absence'' of God-language, providence, any orderly universe. So, have we not left the Garden for the wasteland?

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 It is easy to list God-language in Hemingway: deciding significance is harder. The title of ''In Our Time''{{sfn|Hemingway|1925}} came perhaps unconsciously from an English Prayer: “Give us peace in our time, O Lord” (1928 31).{{sfn|1993}} {{efn|“Give us peace in our time, O Lord” can be found in the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer,{{sfn|1993|p=31}} but presumably Hemingway knew it from the 1662 English BCP. Significantly, peace and Lord are not in Hemingway’s title: certainly, his parents saw little traditional faith in this work. In 1932, Hemingway admits “Ezra Pound discovered I lifted from the English Book of Common Prayer.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1984|p=90}}}} In this work, however, there is little overt God-language, maybe the awkwardness of Krebs with his mother’s sentimentalism in a “A Soldier’s Home”{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=76}}  or the unnamed soldier’s fearful bargaining with God in the accompanying vignette.{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=67}} Perhaps the final story, “Big Two-Hearted River,” with Nick Adams dealing with an indeterminate trauma by returning to Nature, has echoes of Genesis in its simple declarative sentences, “It was a good camp” and “It was a good feeling."{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=147}} The fragment, “Scared stiff looking at it,"{{sfn|Hemingway|1925|p=21}} could be seen as a ''signifier'' of modernism, much as the final words of Kurtz, “The horror, the horror”{{sfn|Conrad|2008|p=178}} from ''Heart of Darkness.'' Conrad’s words, Cedric Watts suggests, “serve as a thematic nexus, a climatic but highly ambiguous utterance which sums up, without resolving, several of the paradoxical themes of the tale."{{sfn|Conrad|2008|p=215}} A quarter century later, Hemingway’s ''In Our Time'' offers yet another such thematic nexus.
-In The Sun Also Rises,{{sfn|Hemingway|1926}} two themes are balanced. One epigraph,“You are all a lost generation,” from Gertrude Stein, suggests that the narrative is a war novel, although the war seems absent. The other epigraph from Ecclesiastes, perhaps the most secular passage in the bible, includes the words, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth {{pg|335|336}}abideth for ever."{{sfn|1926|p=Ecc. 1.4–7}} This theme, the continuation of the earth, is a metonymy for the continuation of humanity. Linda Wagner-Martin suggests this theme “maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}{{efn|“Considering the two epigraphs in tandem, no reader could stay focused for long on the ‘lost generation’ image. The tone of the second epigraph is clearly positive; it is much longer; it maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}}} but presumably Hemingway knew it from the 1662 English BCP. Significantly, peace and Lord are not in Hemingway’s title: certainly, his parents saw little traditional faith in this work. In 1932, Hemingway admits “Ezra Pound discovered I lifted from the English Book of Common Prayer.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1984|p=90}}}}10 Maybe this motif is an attenuated form of providence.
+In ''The Sun Also Rises,''{{sfn|Hemingway|1926}} two themes are balanced. One epigraph,“You are all a lost generation,” from Gertrude Stein, suggests that the narrative is a war novel, although the war seems absent. The other epigraph from Ecclesiastes, perhaps the most secular passage in the bible, includes the words, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth {{pg|335|336}}abideth for ever."{{sfn|1926|p=Ecc. 1.4–7}} This theme, the continuation of the earth, is a metonymy for the continuation of humanity. Linda Wagner-Martin suggests this theme “maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}{{efn|“Considering the two epigraphs in tandem, no reader could stay focused for long on the ‘lost generation’ image. The tone of the second epigraph is clearly positive; it is much longer; it maintains its dominance.”{{sfn|Wagner-Martin|1987|p=6}}}} but presumably Hemingway knew it from the 1662 English BCP. Significantly, peace and Lord are not in Hemingway’s title: certainly, his parents saw little traditional faith in this work. In 1932, Hemingway admits “Ezra Pound discovered I lifted from the English Book of Common Prayer.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1984|p=90}}}}10 Maybe this motif is an attenuated form of providence.
 There is a kind of balance in Jake and Brett’s conversation following the Romero ''debacle.'' Brett’s decision “not to be a bitch” represents she claims, “sort of what we have instead of God."{{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=249}} Jake counters, “Some people have God, quite a lot,” but Brett replies, “He never worked very well with me."{{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=249}} The famous ending is poised among irony, ambiguity, and pessimism. Partly a verdict on Jake and Brett’s tragic relationship, it becomes a larger evaluation of life. With Brett, we like to believe we can have “a damned good time;" {{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=251}} we hope the world is a place of order. But in answer, the novel offers only indeterminacy: a delicate balance between covert God-language and hard-boiled modernism. We are left with Jake’s summary: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?" {{sfn|Hemingway|1926|p=251}}
-A Farewell to Arms{{sfn|Hemingway|1929}} marks a new skepticism, with Hemingway’s famous dismissal of war’s high diction as “obscene.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1929|p=185}} It was also a low point for Hemingway, considering his divorce from Hadley in 1927 and his father’s suicide in 1928. As Reynolds argues, Hemingway frames the Italian retreat from Caporetto as a synecdoche of a larger human defeat.{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=274}} This, says Reynolds, was the “final conclusion” of the war generation {{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}{{efn|“Some discovered such a truth in the trenches during the war; others discovered it in war prisons or in front of firing squads.Hemingway did not finally understand it until ten years after the war.”{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}}} But what of the priest in A Farewell to Arms: is the Abruzzi a kind of sacred space? It might be, butHenry cannot seem to get there. As a modern man, he seems to be “banished.”{{sfn|Civello|1994|p=78}}{{efn|“The Abruzzi, however, is an anomaly in the modern world, and the Christian order it represents no longer exists beyond its boundaries. Frederick Henry, the epitome of the modern displaced hero, yearns nostalgically for that ‘other country’ yet finds himself ‘banished’ from it by his own modern sensibilities." {{sfn|Civello|1994|p=77-78}}}} Heroism still exists, but the irrationality of modern warfare—or the cruelty of Fate— renders it tragically absurd. Toward the end, we read
+''A Farewell to Arms''{{sfn|Hemingway|1929}} marks a new skepticism, with Hemingway’s famous dismissal of war’s high diction as “obscene.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1929|p=185}} It was also a low point for Hemingway, considering his divorce from Hadley in 1927 and his father’s suicide in 1928. As Reynolds argues, Hemingway frames the Italian retreat from Caporetto as a ''synecdoche'' of a larger human defeat.{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=274}} This, says Reynolds, was the “final conclusion” of the war generation {{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}{{efn|“Some discovered such a truth in the trenches during the war; others discovered it in war prisons or in front of firing squads. Hemingway did not finally understand it until ten years after the war.”{{sfn|Reynolds|1976|p=282}}}} But what of the priest in ''A Farewell to Arms:'' is the Abruzzi a kind of sacred space? It might be, butHenry cannot seem to get there. As a modern man, he seems to be “banished.”{{sfn|Civello|1994|p=78}}{{efn|“The Abruzzi, however, is an anomaly in the modern world, and the Christian order it represents no longer exists beyond its boundaries. Frederick Henry, the epitome of the modern displaced hero, yearns nostalgically for that ‘other country’ yet finds himself ‘banished’ from it by his own modern sensibilities." {{sfn|Civello|1994|p=77-78}}}} Heroism still exists, but the irrationality of modern warfare—or the cruelty of Fate—renders it tragically absurd. Toward the end, we read
 <blockquote>If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. {{sfn|Hemingway|1929|p=249}} </blockquote>
 There is a foreshadowing of Catherine’s death, but the words have more resonance
-as a statement on human destiny.Yes, there may be a rumor of grace
+as a statement on human destiny. Yes, there may be a rumor of grace
 in the phrase, “many are strong at the broken places,” but the pervasive tone{{pg|336|337}} is bleak. There seems an ''absence'' of God-language, providence, any orderly universe. So, have we not left the Garden for the wasteland?