Title
"Isn’t It Pretty to Think So?": Ernest Hemingway’s Impossible Homes
Document Type
Essay
Annotation
Exploration of the interwoven depiction of war and domesticity in The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, challenging traditional gendered stereotypes of Hemingway’s writing in her discussion of his male protagonists’ desire for domestic tranquility and safe space beyond the trauma of the frontlines. Contends that Hemingway’s tragic vision prevails in the end as Jake, Frederic, and Robert are directly forced to face lost dreams of home, family, and belonging. Farrell argues that Hemingway’s female characters respond to traumatic loss through their defiance of conventional gender roles and desire to merge identities with their male lovers. Concludes that for Hemingway, language cannot fully communicate experience and thus further emphasizes art’s inability to provide solace.
Published in
Imagining Home: American War Fiction from Hemingway to 9/11
Date
2017
Pages
16-60
Citation
Farrell, Susan. “‘Isn’t It Pretty to Think So?’: Ernest Hemingway’s Impossible Homes.” In Imagining Home: American War Fiction from Hemingway to 9/11, 16-60. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017.