Cohn Attacks Mike And Jake example essay topic

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. His father, Dr. Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, was the owner of a prosperous real estate business and imparted to Ernest the importance of appearances, especially in public. Dr. Hemingway invented surgical forceps for which he would not accept money. He believed that one should not profit from something important for the good of mankind. Ernest's father, a man of high ideals, was very strict and censored the books he allowed his children to read. He for bad Ernest's sister from studying ballet for it was coeducational, and dancing together led to 'hell and damnation'.

Grace Hall Hemingway, Ernest's mother, considered herself pure and proper. She was a dreamer who was upset at anything which disturbed her perception of the world as beautiful. She hated dirty diapers, upset stomachs, and cleaning the house; they were not fit for a lady. She adored the singing of the birds and the smell of flowers. Her children were expected to behave properly and to please her, always. Mrs. Hemingway treated Ernest, when he was a small boy; as if he was a female baby doll and she dressed him accordingly.

This was all right until Ernest got to the age when he wanted to be a 'gun-toting Pawnee Bill'. He began to pull away from his mother, and never forgave her for his humiliation. The town of Oak Park, where Ernest grew up, was very old fashioned and quite religious. The townspeople for bad the word 'virgin' from appearing in schoolbooks, and the word 'breast' was questioned, though it appeared in the Bible.

Ernest loved to fish, canoe and explore the woods. When he couldn't get outside, he escaped to his room and read books. He loved to tell stories to his classmates, often insisting on a friend listening to one of his stories. In spite of his mother's desire, he played in the football team at Oak Park High School. As a student, Ernest was a perfectionist about his grammar and studied English with fervour. He also contributed articles to the school's weekly newspaper.

It appears that the principal did not appreciate Ernest's writings as he often complained about the content of these articles. Ernest was clear about his writing; he wanted people to 'see and feel' and he wanted to enjoy himself while writing. He loved having fun. If nothing was happening, you could be sure he would make something happen.

He would sometimes use forbidden words just to make a fuss. Ernest, though wild and crazy, was a warm, caring individual. He loved the sea, mountains and the stars and hated anyone who he saw as a phone. During World War I Ernest had been rejected from service because of a bad left eye. So he became an ambulance driver in Italy for the Red Cross.

Very much like the hero of "A Farewell to Arms", Ernest is shot in his knee and rests in a hospital looked after by a caring nurse named 'Agnes. Like Frederick Henry in the book, he fell in love with the nurse and was given a medal for his heroism. Having been rejected by 'Agnes, Ernest returned home. He would party late into the night and invite people his parents disapproved of.

Ernest's mother rejected him and he felt that he had to move from home. He moved in with a friend living in Chicago and he wrote articles for The Toronto Star. In Chicago he met and then married Hadley Richardson. She believed that he should spend all his time writing and so she bought him a typewriter for his birthday. They decided that the best place for a writer to live was in Paris, where he could devote himself to his writing. At the time he said that the most difficult thing to write about was being a man.

They could not live on the income from his stories so Ernest wrote for The Toronto Star, again. He took Hadley to Italy to show her where he had been during the war and was devastated to see that everything had changed and all had been destroyed. Hadley became pregnant and was sick all the time. She and Ernest decided to move to Canada.

He had by then written three stories and ten poems. Hadley gave birth to a boy who they named John Hadley Nica no Hemingway. Even though he had his family Ernest was unhappy in life and decided to return to Paris. It was in Paris that Ernest got word that a publisher wanted to print his book "In Our Time" but with some changes. The publisher felt that in-story sex was too blatant, but Ernest refused to change one word.

Around 1925, Ernest began to write a novel, which would be based on his experiences while living in Pamplona, Spain. He planned on calling this book Fiesta, but eventually changed the name to "The Sun Also Rises", which is a well-known saying from the Bible. In this book just as in his other works we can see Hemingway being obsessed with death. The Sun Also Rises opens with the narrator, Jake Barnes, delivering a brief biographical sketch of his friend, Robert Cohn.

Jake is a veteran of World War I who now works as a journalist in Paris. Cohn is also an American expatriate, although not a war veteran. He is a rich Jewish writer who lives in Paris with his forceful and controlling girlfriend, Frances C lyne. He heads to Jake's office one afternoon to try to convince Jake to go with him to South America.

Jake refuses, and he gets rid of Cohn. That night at a dance club, Jake runs into Lady Brett Ashley, a divorced socialite and the love of Jake's life. Brett is a free-spirited and independent woman, but she can be very selfish at times. She and Jake met in England during World War I, when Brett treated Jake for a war wound. During the conversation, it is mentioned that Jake's injury rendered him impotent. Although Brett loves Jake, she hints that she doesn't want to give up sex, and that for this reason she will not start a relationship with Jake.

The next morning Jake and Cohn have lunch. Cohn is quite taken with Brett, and he gets angry when Jake tells him that Brett plans to marry Mike Campbell, a heavy-drinking Scottish war veteran. That afternoon, Brett stands Jake up. That night, however, she arrives unexpectedly at his apartment with Count Mippipopolous, a rich Greek expatriate.

After sending the count out for champagne, Brett tells Jake that she is leaving for San Sebastian, in Spain, saying it will be easier on both of them to be apart. Several weeks later, while Brett and Cohn are both travelling outside of Paris, one of Jake's friends, a fellow American war veteran named Bill Gorton, arrives in Paris. Bill and Jake make plans to leave for Spain to do some fishing and later attend the fiesta at Pamplona. Jake makes plans to meet Cohn on the way to Pamplona. Jake runs into Brett, who has returned from San Sebastian; with her is Mike, her fianc'e.

They ask if they may join Jake in Spain, and he politely responds that they may. When Mike leaves for a moment, Brett reveals to Jake that she and Cohn were in San Sebastian together. Bill and Jake take a train from Paris to Bayonne, in the south of France, where they meet Cohn. The three men travel together into Spain, to Pamplona. They plan on meeting Brett and Mike that night, but the couple does not show up. Bill and Jake decide to leave for a small town called Burguete to fish, but Cohn chooses to stay and wait for Brett.

Bill and Jake travel to the Spanish countryside and check into a small, rural inn. They spend five pleasant days fishing, drinking, and playing cards. Eventually, Jake receives a letter from Mike. He writes that he and Brett will be arriving in Pamplona shortly. Jake and Bill leave on a bus that afternoon to meet the couple. After arriving in Pamplona, Jake and Bill check into a hotel owned by Montoya, a Spanish bullfighting expert who likes Jake for his earnest interest in the sport.

Jake and Bill meet up with Brett, Mike, and Cohn, and the whole group goes to watch the bulls being unloaded in preparation for the bullfights during the fiesta. Mike mocks Cohn harshly for following Brett around when he is not wanted. After a few more days of preparation, the fiesta begins. The city is consumed with dancing, drinking, and general debauchery. The highlight of the first day is the first bullfight, at which Pedro Romero, a nineteen-year-old prodigy, distinguishes himself above all the other bullfighters.

Despite its violence, Brett cannot take her eyes off the bullfight, or Romero. A few days later, Jake and his friends are at the hotel dining room, and Brett notices Romero at a nearby table. She persuades Jake to introduce her to him. Mike again verbally abuses Cohn, and they almost come to blows before Jake defuses the situation.

Later that night, Brett asks Jake to help her find Romero, with whom she says she has fallen in love. Jake agrees to help, and Brett and Romero spend the night together. Jake then meets up with Mike and Bill, who are both extremely drunk. Cohn soon arrives, demanding to know where Brett is.

After an exchange of insults, Cohn attacks Mike and Jake, knocking them both out. When Jake returns to the hotel, he finds Cohn lying face down on his bed and crying. Cohn begs Jake's forgiveness, and Jake reluctantly grants it. The next day, Jake learns from Bill and Mike that the night before Cohn also beat up Romero when he discovered the bullfighter with Brett; Cohn later begged Romero to shake hands with him, but Romero refused.

At the bullfight that afternoon, Romero fights brilliantly, dazzling the crowd by killing a bull that had gored a man to death in the streets. Afterward, he cuts the bull's ear off and gives it to Brett. After this final bullfight, Romero and Brett leave for Madrid together. Cohn has left that morning, so only Bill, Mike, and Jake remain as the fiesta draws to a close. The next day, the three remaining men rent a car and drive out of Spain to Bayonne and then go their separate ways. Jake heads back into Spain to San Sebastian, where he plans to spend several quiet days relaxing.

He receives a telegram from Brett, however, asking him to come meet her in Madrid. He complies, and boards an overnight train that same day. Jake finds Brett alone in a Madrid hotel room. She has broken with Romero, fearing that she would ruin him and his career. She announces that she now wants to return to Mike. Jake books tickets for them to leave Madrid.

As they ride in a taxi through the Spanish capital, Brett hints that she and Jake could have had a wonderful time together. Jake responds, "Yes, isn't it pretty to think so?" In 1927, Ernest found himself unhappy with his wife and son. They decided to divorce and he married Pauline, a woman he had been involved with while he was married to Hadley. A year later Ernest was able to complete his war novel, which he called "A Farewell to Arms". The novel was about the pain of war, of finding love in this time of pain. It portrayed the battles, the retreats, the fears, the gore and the terrible waste of war.

Much of the storyline is taken from his personal experiences. The main character of the book, Frederick Henry, often referred to as Tenet e, experiences many of the same situations, which Hemingway lived. Some of these similarities are exact while some are less similar, and some events have a completely different outcome. Hemingway, like Henry, enjoyed drinking large amounts of alcohol. Both of them were involved in World War I, in a medical capacity, but neither of them were regular army personnel. Like Hemingway, Henry was shot in his right knee during a battle.

Both men were Americans, but a difference worth noting was that Hemingway was a driver for the American Red Cross while Henry was a medic for the Italian Army. In real life Hemingway met his love, 'Agnes, a nurse in the hospital after being shot. Henry met his love, Catherine Barkley, also a nurse before he was shot and hospitalized. In both cases, the relationships with these women were strengthened while the men were hospitalized. Another difference is that Hemingway's romance was short-lived, while the book seemed to indicate that Henry's romance, though they never married, was strong and lasted.

In A Farewell to Arms, Catherine and her child died while she was giving birth; this was not the case with 'Agnes who left Henry for an Italian Army officer. It seems to me that the differences between the two men were only surface differences. They allowed Hemingway to call the novel a work of fiction. Had he written an autobiography the book would probably not have been well received because Hemingway was not a well-known author at that time. Although he denied critics' views that "A Farewell to Arms" was symbolic, had he not made any changes they would not have been as impressed with the war atmosphere and with the na"i vet'e of a young man who experiences war for the first time.

Ernest probably did not want to expose his life to everyone and so the slight changes would prove that it was not himself and his own experiences, which he was writing about. This novel was well received by his publisher, Max Perkins, but Ernest had to substitute dashes for the 'dirty' language. Ernest used his life when he wrote; using everything he did and everything that ever happened to him. He nevertheless remained a private person: wanting his stories to be read but at the same time he wanted to be left alone.

He once said, 'Don't look at me. Look at my words". A common theme throughout Hemingway's stories is that no matter how hard we fight to live, we end up defeated, but we are here and we must go on. At age 31 he wrote Death in the Afternoon, about bullfighting in his beloved Spain. Ernest was a restless man; he travelled all over the United States, Europe, Cuba and Africa. At the age of 37 Ernest met the woman who would be his third wife: Martha Gell horn, who was a writer like himself.

He went to Spain to become an 'antiwar correspondent' and found that war was like a club where everyone was playing the same game. Martha went to Spain as a war correspondent and they lived together. He knew that he was hurting Pauline but he could not stop himself from getting involved with women. In 1940 he wrote, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and dedicated it to Martha, whom he married at the end of that year. He found himself travelling between Havana, Cuba and Ketchum, Idaho, which he did for the rest of his life.

During World War II Ernest became a secret agent for the United States. He suggested that he use his boat, "The Pillar', to surprise German submarines and attack them with hidden machine guns. What a strange idea that was. It was at this time that Ernest, always a drinker, started drinking most of his days away. He would host wild, fancy parties and did not write at all during the next three years. At the end of the war Ernest went to England and meat an American foreign correspondent named Mary Welsh.

He divorced Martha and married Mary in Havana in 1946. Ernest was a man of extremes: living either in luxury or happy to do without any material possession. He was always haunted by memories of his mother and would not go to her funeral when she died in 1951. He admitted that he hated his mother.

Hemingway wrote his most famous novel, "The Old Man and the Sea" in only two months. He was on top of the world, the book was printed by Life Magazine and thousands of copies were sold in the United States. This novel and "A Farewell to Arms" were both made into Hollywood movies. In 1953 he went on a safari with Mary, and he was in heaven hunting big game.

Though Ernest had a serious accident and later became ill, he could never admit that he had any weaknesses. Nothing would stop him certainly not pain. In 1954 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Toward the end, Ernest started to travel again but almost if he knew he would die soon. He suddenly started becoming paranoid and to forget things. He became obsessed with sin, his upbringing was showing, but still was inconsistent in his behaviour.

He never got over feeling like a bad person, as his father, mother and grandfather had taught him. In the last year of his life he lived inside of his dreams, similar to his mother, who he hated with all his heart. He was suicidal and had electric shock treatments for his depression and strange behaviour. On a Sunday morning, July 2, 1961, Ernest Miller Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun. Written by: Cse pela Is tv " anP'es, 08.04. 2005

Bibliography

/ Literary works used: . Malcolm Cowley, 'Rain as Disaster', Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms, Jay Gel lens, Prentice-Hall, Inc. : 1970, pp. 54-55. Original novels by Ernest Miller Hemingway A Farewell to Arms The Old Man and the Sea The Sun Also Rises.