
Title
"Ether in the Brain": Blunting the Edges of Perception in Hemingway’s Middle Period
Document Type
Essay
Annotation
Reads the works of the middle years as “the end of his ingenious and fertile love affair with the art of repression.” Sees “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” as Hemingway’s epiphany regarding the debilitating effects of defensively repressing grief, resulting in his later fiction directly addressing emotional pain and loss. Concludes that attempts at numbing pain through alcohol and non-thinking led to the destruction of artistic talent for both Harry and Hemingway.
Published in
The Grief Taboo in American Literature: Loss and Prolonged Adolescence in Twain, Melville, and Hemingway
Date
1996
Pages
207-248
Citation
Boker, Pamela A. “‘Ether in the Brain’: Blunting the Edges of Perception in Hemingway’s Middle Period.” In The Grief Taboo in American Literature: Loss and Prolonged Adolescence in Twain, Melville, and Hemingway, 207-48. New York: New York University Press, 1996.