Ernest Hemingway :: Free Essay Writer

Ernest Hemingway could ernest hemingway be considered a tragic figure in contemporary literature? Looking at Ernest Hemingway's past, you'd see that he lived a very tough, strict childhood. He was raised under the thoughts that if you had strong religion, hard work, physical fitness, and self determination you would be very successful no matter what field you were to go into. This made his relationship with his parents sort of complex. It was more of a difficult relationship with his mother. She was demanding, and was also known to be over bearing. She didn't accept Ernest as being a boy, so she frequently would treat him as a female baby doll and dress him as one as well. He didn't have the 'ideal' childhood as normally wanted. I believe his mother not fostering that proper bond she should have made with him caused him to be unsure of himself. This could possibly be a cause to his depression. An example of the mental torture he was put through with his mother was on his birthday. For his birthday, after he was moved out, his mother sent him a 'present.' She mailed him a cake, th e gun that his father had used to kill himself, along with a letter. The letter explained that a mothers life was like a bank. 'Every child that is born... enters the world with a large and prosperous bank account, seemingly inexhaustible.' She continued in the letter that he should replenish what he has withdrawn, and wrote out all the specific ways in which Ernest should be making 'deposits to keep the account in good standing.' His mother could be perceived as androgynous, which means having both female and male type qualities or even personalities. In a few of the books Hemingway wrote, he gives someone the impression that he hated his mother. He referred to her as a 'dominating shrew,' meaning she was selfish and only thought of herself. His mother considered herself pure and proper, and became very upset when anything 'disturbed' her view of the world as beautiful. Anything painful, or disgusting, she thought was not lady like. His childhood was very difficult and it stuck wit h him through-out his adult hood. Ernest never forgave his mother for humiliating him in front of the town. As an adult, Hemingway didn't have it easy either. He lived a sort of rejected adulthood. When he was younger he dreamed of being a boxer.