Farewell to arms: Psychology and Paradox in Hemmingway's Life and Death
Janos Talaber
Essay from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Literature, University of Debrecen (Regnum-M Educational Co. / University of Debrecen), language: English, abstract: One might find it strange that we are planning to write about Hemmingway and his obsession with guns. However, we personally believe that everything in connection with great American as well as British writers might be terrible interesting and relevant. We have been in touch with American English for more than 20 years now, and have carried out some research in field of US language and civilization. Thus we find it very interesting to deal with one of the greatest writers in American literature history. He is not only one among the greatest idols, but he is also one of the most mysterious ones. Many people (Fiedler, 1975) believe that all his life and even death was of mystery. Some others even go so far that they suppose he did not kill himself, and it was a mere accident while he was cleaning his shot gun. In our small essay we would like to unveil this mystery, or at least we would intend to find solutions for many unanswered questions. Is his small piece of work a forerunner of something that has never been properly answered? Could we assume that our aim is only to summon the ideas, facts and files around this phenomenon, and we would gradually set up a diagnosis for Hemmingway’s status of mind? What roles did weapons have in his life? He said farewell to arms several times (and also he was expressing his crave for peace all in his life), still he had a wide collection of shotguns and he was obsessed with using them during hunting “expeditions”. Was he then a genius or a mentally disabled person? We might state that a genius is usually disabled as well. However, can we prove this throughout a short essay? At least we would try it. So dear reader, stay tuned!
