| Term Paper Title | Ernest Miller Hemingway |
| # of Words | 2682 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) | 10.73 |
Ernest Miller Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born at eight o'clock in the morning in Oak Park, Illinois July
21, 1899. In the nearly sixty two years of his life that followed he forged a literary reputation
unsurpassed in the twentieth century and created a mythological hero in himself that
captivated and confounded not only serious literary critics but also the average man...in a
word, he was a star.
Born in the family home at 439 Oak Park Avenue, a house built by his widowed grandfather
Ernest Hall, Hemingway was the second of Dr. Clarence and Grace Hall Hemingway's six
children ; he had four sisters and one brother. He was named after his maternal grandfather
Ernest Hall and his great uncle Miller Hall.
Oak Park, Illinois was a mainly Protestant upper middle class suburb of Chicago that
Hemingway would later refer to as a town of "wide lawns and narrow minds." Only ten
geographic miles from the city, Oak Park was really much farther away philosophically. It
was basically a conservative town that tried to isolate itself from Chicago's liberal seediness.
Hemingway was raised with the conservative midwestern values of strong religion, hard
work, physical fitness and self determination; if one adhered to these parameters, he was
taught, he would be ensured of success in whatever field he chose.
As a boy his father taught him to hunt and fish along the shores and in the forests surrounding
Lake Michigan. The Hemingway's had a summer house called Windemere on Horton Bay at
the northern end of Lake Michigan and the family would spend the summer months their
trying to stay cool. Hemingway would fish the different streams that ran into the lake, or
would take the row boat out on the bay and do some fishing there. He would also go squirrel
hunting in the woods near the summer house, discovering early the serenity to be found while
alone in the forest or on a stream. It was something he could always go back to throughout
his life, wherever he was. Nature would be the touchstone of Hemingway's life and work,
and though he often found himself living in major cities like Chicago, Toronto and Paris early
in his career, once he became successful he chose somewhat isolated places to live like Key
West, or San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, a small village outside of Havana, or after Cuba fell
to Castro, Ketchum, Idaho. All were convenient locales for hunting and fishing.
When he wasn't hunting or fishing by himself or with his father, his mother taught him the
finer points of music. Grace was an accomplished singer who once had aspirations of a
career on stage, but eventually settled down with her husband and occupied her time by
giving voice and music lessons to local children, including her own. Hemingway never had a
knack for music and suffered through choir practices and cello lessons, however the musical
knowledge he acquired helped him share in his first wife Hadley's interest in the piano.
Hemingway received his formal schooling in the Oak Park public school system. In high
school he was mediocre at sports, playing football, swimming, water basketball and serving
as the track team manager. He enjoyed working on the high school newspaper called The
Trapeze, where he wrote his first articles, usually humorous ones where he imitated the
popular satirist of the time, Ring Lardner. Hemingway graduated in the spring of 1917 and
instead of going to college the following fall like his parents expected, he took a job as a cub
reporter for the Kansas City Star; the job was arranged for by his Uncle Tyler who was a
close friend of the chief editorial writer of the paper.
At the time of Hemingway's graduation from High School,World War I was raging in Europe
and despite Woodrow Wilson's attempts to keep America out of the war, the United States
joined the Allies in the fight against Germany and Austria in April, 1917. When Hemingway
turned eighteen he tried to enlist in the army, but was deferred because of poor vision; he had
a bad left eye that he probably...Read entire document
|
|
|
