22
votes
Accepted
How much of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is based on real events?
Ernest Hemingway traveled to Madrid in March of 1937 to observe the Spanish Civil war firsthand. He reported on the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. In March 1937, he traveled to ...
- 1,051
14
votes
Is there any evidence that George Orwell read 'For whom the bell tolls'? Did Hemingway read 'Homage to Catalonia' or (later) '1984'?
I don't know if he read them, but Hemingway owned two copies of 1984, see this list (p 275) of his books, cataloged by the JFK library.
Here is a catalog of books Orwell owned at his death; it is not ...
- 3,403
9
votes
Why is Hemingway's generation a ‘lost generation’?
This referred to a lack of purpose and drive which was a consequence of having witnessed pointless death on such a huge scale.
In the aftermath of the war there arose a group of young persons known ...
- 919
8
votes
Accepted
Are the numerous hunger references attributed to the title of A Moveable Feast?
The final choice to make "A Moveable Feast" the title was made by Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary. It was supposedly suggested by Hemingway's friend, A. E. Hostner.
While the Hemingway quote is ...
- 5,864
8
votes
Accepted
What does the "he/him" refer to in "I'll try to get him to work far out" in The Old Man and the Sea?
The first sentence makes the situation clear, I think:
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty ...
- 53.5k
6
votes
Accepted
What did Hemingway mean by "the setting of the sun is a difficult time for all fish"?
Taking the phrase literally, sunset is a difficult time because it is a change of environment. Species that are adapted to hunt their prey using the light of the sun can no longer do so; species that ...
- 53.5k
5
votes
How's this sentence by Hemingway grammatical: 'Once I remember Gertrude Stein talking of bullfights spoke of her admiration for Joselito'?
To my mind, the sentence misses at a few punctuation marks to make it grammatical, or at least easier to parse. When you interpret "once" as referring to "spoke" (i.e. "I remember how Gertrude Stein, ....
- 44k
5
votes
In "The Old Man and the Sea", what happened to the ridiculous fish?
The sharks ate almost all of it, leaving only the skeleton, head, and tail.
Excerpt from the text (emphasis mine):
One came, finally, against the head itself and he knew that it was over. He swung ...
- 10.3k
4
votes
Why is Hemingway's generation a ‘lost generation’?
Hemingway's generation was what William Strauss and Neil Howe called a "reactive" generation in their book Generations: A History of America's Future, 1584-2069. This is one of four ...
- 441
2
votes
Accepted
Does anybody know where the Hemingway reference is located in The Deer Park?
In Google books, one can preview page 353 of The Deer Park, where one finds the following text:
and I tried to write my novel about bullfighting, but it was not very good. It was inevitably ...
- 11.7k
2
votes
Why did Hemingway include the following in his book, the Moveable Feast?
The question asks why Hemingway included this story in A Moveable Feast. But it is not clear that he did include it! Hemingway died in 1961 before the book was finished; his widow Mary edited his ...
- 53.5k
2
votes
Accepted
A Farewell To Arms - Dialogue between Henry and the priest in chapter XI
I'll start with the simple question:
"That is an accident" refers to being wounded. Hemingway wrote of being wounded as "an accident" in some of his other stories.
Regarding "it":
Henry becomes ...
- 367
2
votes
What does "It was like saying goodbye to a statue" mean in the ending to "A Farewell to Arms"?
The important context here is that Frederic is alone in a hospital room with the body of Catherine, his dead lover. Now we can understand the similie.
On a literal level, this means that Frederic's ...
- 9,553
1
vote
Switch from first- to third-person narration in “To Have and Have Not”
Wikipedia seems consistent with the idea that the POV switch is partially an artifact of the novel's origin as two separate works.
A couple more reasons might be:
First-person is more intimate, and ...
- 684
1
vote
Accepted
What does "nada y pues nada" mean in Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"?
It translates to
nothing and then nothing and nothing and then nothing.
In his depressed mood, he feels that everything is nothing. This is the diagnosis that leads to his parody prayer.
- 5,957
1
vote
What is the meaning of "broads" in Hemingway's short story Fifty Grand?
A "Broad" in this sense is a young woman ("Old broad" being the extension) from a working class background. Such a woman was considered forthright and independent. It is a slang ...
- 111
1
vote
A Farewell To Arms - Dialogue between Henry and the priest in chapter XI
After reading the part again I think it stands literally for the war itself. Since Henry serves in a medical unit he doesn't fight on the front and being in charge of the mechanics he might not ...
- 43
1
vote
How much of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is based on real events?
A real bridge does exist, over the Eresma stream. It's south side housed a small front line republican position, though manned by regular troops, not guerillas. The remains of trenches and living ...
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