The Formation of Hemingway’s Ecological Awareness

Junjun Ji

doi:10.5539/ass.v14n3p10

Abstract

Hemingway, who has done a lot to shape twentieth-century American literature, remains an interesting writer because it is possible to read him in many ways. With the rise of American nature writing, the natural world in Hemingway’s fiction has recently caught critical attention. This paper is going to explore the origin of his nature complex and ecological awareness from three aspects, that is, his life experience in nature, his reading experience and the influence of the painter Cezanne.

Highlights

As Fleming points out in the introduction to Hemingway and the Natural World, “Few authors in history have been so closely identified with the natural world as Earnest Hemingway”
Being regarded as a man who puts a high value on sanitize or ‘tonic’ wildness, Hemingway admires wilderness for its own qualities and he often portrays the wilderness as a nurturing parent, knowing what is good for us
An obvious example from Hemingway’s fiction is his short story “Big Two-Hearted River,” when the war-torn Nick Adams finds at least some mental peace away from all humanity and in the presence of nature

Summary

Introduction

As Fleming points out in the introduction to Hemingway and the Natural World, “Few authors in history have been so closely identified with the natural world as Earnest Hemingway”. A few months before he died, Hemingway told an interviewer, “to know and love nature is a simpler and higher thing than to know the geology of the rocks and the chemistry of trees” (Williams 14). Throughout his life, the memories of wild nature, the knowledge of wild nature, and his need for wild nature never left him, that was his gulf stream, in his blood, in the land and on the page. Hemingway’s early experience in the natural surroundings and his later adventures and explorative life as a hunter and a fisherman in nature greatly affected his outlook about nature. The following part of this paper will explore the origin of Hemingway’s nature complex and ecological awareness from three aspects, that is, his life experience in nature, his reading experience and the influence of the painter Cezanne

Hemingway’s Life Experience in Nature

Hemingway’s Reading Experience

Paul Cezanne’s Influence

Conclusion