Characteristics of Hemingway’s Heroes in his Novels 99
Henry.
Death in the Afternoon is a work of about bullfighting. Hemingway wrote it on the bases of his actual experiences
in Spain and his observation of bullfighting. This is clearly a work of non-fiction. The subject here is death and bullfighter
is a good example of the code-hero. In his confrontation with death and here a very violent death, his courage and dignity
shows him to be high priest of death the ceremonial or ritual out the fight, the clash with the bull. The code is personified
in the manner in which he shows grace under pressure.
Green Hills of Africa, a work of non-fiction based on his experiences of big-game hunting in Africa, the subject is
death, death of men, horses and big game. Again the hero is a man confronting death and in his quest for big game has
made a ‘separate piece’ and has cut himself away from ordering society and having alienated himself from nature and have
experiences which are rather superficial.
The protagonist of To Have and Have Not, Harry Morgan is presented more as a Code hero than as a Hemingway
hero. Harry Morgan was a man hard hit by the economic depression in the 1930s. He is rendered helpless to find work and
so he cannot support his wife and children through honest labour. He is therefore forced to take to crime and money
through illegal means which pores to be his undoing. He is forced to murder when his own life is placed in danger and
ultimately is arrested for the crime. In the end, however, he learns the lesson that in this hostile world one man is not
enough. One man cannot fight and hope to win. This novel marks the end of the long exits that saw its beginning in the
‘separate peace’ that Nick Adams made. It also marks the end of the ideological separation the Hemingway has made from
the world. Thus, here, Hemingway, who had alienated himself for an isolated existence finds that man has no chance alone.
It was probably the Civil war in Spain that made Hemingway release this code.
The Fifth Column is a full length play again dealing with the Spanish Civil war. Hemingway in this play praises
the loyalist with whom he was full of sympathy. In this play the protagonist, Phillip, is immediately recognizable as a
Hemingway hero. Phillip is similarly afflicted with thoughts and his memories cause him sleepless nights and as with the
Hemingway heroes, he was nightmares at night. He cannot stop thinking and unknown to his wife; he has fully committed
himself to the loyalist quest for freedom and democracy in Spain. He is therefore in every sense a Hemingway hero.
The only point of difference is that he has now come a long way from the earlier heroes like Frederic Henry whom he
shares similarities with but who had decided that such patriotism was obscene and abstract and believed rather in the
concrete names of places, rivers, streets which to him had more dignity.
The theme of this novel ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ are a continuation of the theme in To Have and Have Not, that
a man has no chance alone against the world. Here, the statement is “no man is an island, entire of it”, whereas in the
earlier novel, ‘One man alone isn’t got any chance the protagonist, Robert Jordan again symbolizes both the hero and the
Code hero. The novel chronicles these days in his life. He has been sent on a mission, to blow up a bridge, to impede the
movement of the Fascist during the Spanish Civil War. He is successful, but he severely wounds in his legs and he chooses
to stay back and allow his companions to escape rather than going along with them and restricting their movement. He is
sure to die and Jordan fully understands this, but not flinches. He has, however, come to see the wisdom of such a sacrifice
and the book ends without any bitterness. The hero is still the wounded man. But he has learnt about life and how to live
and function in spite of his wounds. His behaviour is commendable. The manner in which he dies proves that life is well
worth struggling for. His victory in having done his job well and, to die, to sacrifice is well worth of it, if there is cause
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