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By writing stories that show the American Dream being unattainable, themes of disillusionment, moral, and ethical drainage, and protagonists parallel to his tragic life, Ernest Hemingway’s literature refutes the American Dream.

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Ernest Hemingway refutes the American Dream because his books have themes of disillusionment and moral and ethical drainage. In Hemingway’s book, A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry, the protagonist of the novel, leaves the destruction caused by the war behind, and many characters in the book disdain the deaths and violence war brings and question its supposed glory as well. The aftermath of the war was too brutal on all of its veterans, leaving them all drained morally and ethically, and leaving them with no desire to pursue the American Dream. Hemingway describes the wars as horrible yet inevitable. Because the wars are inevitable, so are its effects on society. Hemingway proves the American Dream is unattainable in his literature with themes of disillusionment and moral and ethical drainage.

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https://seebetterlear.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/hemingway-1.jpg

A true hero faces death with dignity. Efforts to avoid death are ultimately futile and this nihilism is not a product of surrender but of heroic courage. Heroic fatalism refers to being able to recognize impending death and to live life with dignity until demise.

This theme is most evident in his novella, Old Man and the Sea. Santiago, the protagonist of the story, sails further and further out to catch the biggest fish. He manages to catch a marlin after eighty-seven days from his last fishery after three days of battle, and even as he is returning home, he continues to fight off sharks from eating his prey though he knows that his battle is useless. This story is an epic about a man who refuses to dogmatically succumb to death and give up his meaning in life. During this journey, Santiago falls sick, gets injured, gets a sunburn, and is barely able to rest, but never gives up. He says,

"... man is not made for defeat ... a man can be destroyed but not defeated."

... Thus revealing heroic fatalism. Indeed, Santiago's soul as a true hero is not defeated by nature though his physical body is destroyed. Though he returns with only a fraction of the marlin, the townspeople, and the readers know that he is a true hero with dignity. Hemingway perceived struggles in life much alike with battles during wartime and, from his experiences, saw that man should die while fighting for his glory.
Disillusionment after World War I
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Many Americans were disillusioned by the huge number of casualty brought by World War I. Hemingway himself was disillusioned by the horrors of the war that he experienced and expressed this idea in his works. This disillusionment also brought about the Lost Generation, which Hemingway and many of his characters were representative of. People of the Lost Generation who has witnessed WWI were morally and ethically drained and saw no significance in what used to give meanings in life.

He cries vanity of war in a number of his works, and most notably in his novel A Farewell to Arms. Frederic Henry, the protagonist of the novel, leaves the destruction caused by the war behind, and many characters in the book disdain the deaths and violence war bring and question its supposed glory as well. During the Italian retreat, morals and spirits of the soldiers in the war front crumbles, in which Hemingway conveys the idea that times of violence and chaos robs even the innocent people of ethical judgments. However, Hemingway does not write from a pacifist point of view; rather, in his works, he portrays wars as something terrible but also inevitable. The world is senseless and cruel, and wars are merely outcomes of the coldness of the world. The world is reflected in the war in the clearest way, and it refuses to preserve true love.

During the wartime, Frederic Henry laments,

"Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages."

Hemingway writes war is not an embodiment of glory, honor, courage, hallow or any other abstraction, but merely the world itself.

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Concordia Library: Author Study: Ernest Hemingway Curated by Joyce Hur '17: Theme & Motif

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Terse sentences, Modernist Movement, symbolism, Lost Generation, masculinity, alcohol, hunting, complex love affairs - Ernest Hemingway.

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Ernest Hemingway’s literature also refutes the American Dream by showing that it is lofty unattainable. Hemingway’s book, “The Sun Also Rises,” shows how the post World War I era got it’s name of The Lost Generation by following the lives of a World War I veteran, Jake Barnes, and his love interest, Brett Ashley with no direction in life after the war. As the story goes on Jake and Brett lose their humanity from their post war trauma ultimately separating them even though they still felt love for each other. This is a perfect example of the American Dream being unattainable because even love couldn’t turn around the lives of the lost generation. Jake and Brett ultimately end up being unsatisfied with their lives, personifying their generation as “lost”. With no way of achieving happiness and satisfaction, the American Dream is impossible to achieve. Hemingway proves the inevitability of achieving the American Dream in his literature, therefore refuting it as well.

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2249917259?searchid=1646236205&accountid=3292

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Ernest Hemingway’s literature refutes the American Dream because the devastating stories he wrote with ultimately unhappy protagonists were parallel to his own life which tragically ended with suicide in 1961. Ernest Hemingway lived a crazy, extravagant, adventurous lifestyle with his early fame in fortune. Ernest Hemingway fell in love with bullfighting, and deep sea fishing as a young man. It is no coincidence that he wrote The Sun Also Rises about a Young bullfighter, and The Old Man and the Sea about a deep sea fisherman. In both stories, the protagonists ultimately don’t achieve the American Dream, just like him. Jake Barnes of The Sun Also Rises ultimately doesn’t end up with his love interest who was just within his grasp, and in The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago isn’t able to catch the marlin who he devoted his life towards catching. Ernest Hemingway’s life in parallel to this in the sense that he had all the fame and fortune in the world, but still could not find happiness, and achieve the American Dream, resulting in his suicide. Because the American Dream wasn’t achievable for Hemingway even with a wild luxurious life, Ernest Hemingway’s literature refutes the American Dream.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3468300716/GVRL?u=clar33415&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=ab82e716

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RCrnfkKFlH2vOH6025uO-ZDmIFNGngw-/view?usp=sharing