our hemingway era
an era, continued.
I remember sitting in my college dorm room contemplating wondering where do I go from here? I had just dropped computer science as a major. at this point, I was one year into college. I failed the initial class but passed the subsequent classes with the help of a friend who I hired as a tutor. I realized that while I may be able to graduate, something was truly missing. the banality of 0’s and 1’s were important, i’m sure, but I felt unfulfilled in more ways than one. I needed to make a change, so i did. English! that was it. I was going to be an English major. in the Caribbean where I went to school, being an English major was synonymous to saying that you were going to become a teacher. that was not my intention. I chose English as a major because, it was my passion, my raison d’être! I enjoyed reading, writing, and pontificating on what the author was trying to convey to the reader. here is where my Hemingway era began. I began reading a lot of his work. On days where my first class you be late in the day, I would find myself sitting down in the cafeteria, finishing The Old Man and the Sea. His work intrigued me. His life was a panoply of pain, suffering, and triumph. He wrote about what he knew, what he experienced, and made it feel so real. His short stories were riveting but also left you deep in thought. A Clean Well-Lighted Place is one of his short stories I read up to this day. Bereft with meaning leaving the reader contemplating about the life of the protagonist. A Moveable Feast speaks on his escapades in Paris, a place loved by many, truly understood by a few. Quick segue, I wrote about my experience in Paris here and wrote about visiting the place where Hemingway grew up here. Maybe they will add some context to my admiration of Hemingway.
The three stories mentioned above are some of my favorite works of Hemingway. They speak to the plight of the modern man. The struggle of daily life, the way grief refocuses, and the soul’s craving for adventure and risk. Essentially, my premise is that we’re all living the Hemingway era in varying degrees.
Hemingway story ends in tragedy, so will most of our stories, and while that’s unfortunate, i’m glad we’re able to read and experience his story.
la vie en rose,
Daviel