Ernest Hemingway

Tuesday, October 25, 2011


Ernest Hemingway in his story “Soldier’s Home” clearly conveys his ideal way to capture the stories of his life where he as a journalist before becoming a novelist relied on using short sentences In order to represent a semi-autobiography where the reader can feel like they're in his shoes experiencing his life's journey. Eventhough, the great differences between Hemingway and Krebs yet, Hemingway viewed the moments of his personal life and the same struggle he had faced in his town after returning from World War I throughout Krebs character. He stretched out his practical knowledge, and feelings in Harold’s personality, which illustrates the “insights into his home coming and his understanding of the dilemmas of the returned war veteran”  (Young.2011.p.1). Forexample, Krebs patriotism where he joined the marines and with no doubt shows his faith and ideal qualities. Likewise, Hemingway brevity where he “joined the Red Cross recruitment and signed on to be an ambulance driver in Italy”. (Young .2011. p.1). Moreover, As Spark Notes editors mentioned Hemingway infinite torment due to war that caused him Emotional Trauma and disillusions that conveys his feelings of frustration and shame upon returning home to parents who still had a romantic notion of war and who didn’t understand the psychological impact the war had had on their son. By the same token, Harold Krebs, who fought in World War I and has now returned to his mother’s house in a small, Oklahoma town also shows same attitude where he losses innocence and  can no longer fit back into life he had mentioned “now you pray, Harold, she said. I can’t Krebs said.” Also this is shown when his mother states "There can be no idle hands in His Kingdom", to which Krebs replies, "I'm not in His Kingdom". (Hemingway, 1925, p.350-351). Furthermore, Hemingway was attending school aside of his sport exercises to show how his life was normal before war similarly concerning Harold Krebs .for the most part, he insisted on keeping a simple life where he can relax. In addition, he showed us a picture of him with his fraternity brothers at a Methodist college Harold had attended as it was before war and the fact that “He wanted to live along without consequences” (Hemingway, 1925, p.346). And thus one can infer to the drastic change the innocent boy in the fraternity undergone after war and the deep roots of isolation and alienation that combine Hemingway and Krebs in a semi-autobiography.


















References:
 Young, P. (2011). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260825/Ernest-Hemingway


Hemingway,E. (1925). Soldier’s Home.Paris


SparkNotes Editors. (n.d.). SparkNote on In Our Time. Retrieved August 10, 2011, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/inourtime/section27.rhtml
















First Silent Movie

 


Cinema is part and parcel of my life. It is much more than a distant, three hours distraction, it is a vicarious lifestyle. The silver screen provides an alternative, or helps me to elude from the day-to-day realities. I'm pretty sure that my first exposure to silent movies was a Charlie Chaplin comedy. But after watching "Metropolis" I was kind of surprised. It was more joyful and glamorous than I expected. It really makes the images more powerful when you are not concentrating on what they are saying. In addition, understanding the content requires careful attention, and awareness. Especially "Metropolis" due to the issues that it talks about regarding the disparities between the wealthy and the working class as well as the issues regarding robots and machines. Where I believe this film is precursor to the science fiction films which really attracted and entertained me considering that the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures while actors emphasized body language and facial expression and thus helped me understand what the actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Moreover, the idea of combining motion pictures with live music performances was a masterpiece that shines with a mixture of different feelings I encountered between the scenes. In fact, the importance of music in creating a mood was already known - music was effectively used to the same purpose in plays and dramas. But getting music into a mute film was like trying to make a blind man see a picture! Not to mention, that this movie used Intertitles that were interspersed between the visuals. That helped me carry the story from one point in the plot to another. All of this looking back into the history of motion pictures has given me a profound sense of appreciation for the early films, and for those film makers who made their creations soar, even without the use of sound.