ABSTRACT
Likely every American has read a novel or short story by Hemingway at some point in their formal education. Also likely, anyone reading this book has been driven to move beyond the required reading texts and immerse themselves a little longer with this great American writer. Hemingway captures the struggle of our lives, both the quotidian and the tragic, and nurtures a reader response that is quietly fi erce. His stories do not necessarily foist the reader to battle but they do stir passion for resistance. While pondering what we might oppose, the reader participates in an intoxicating process of self-scrutiny; we want to wallow around inside ourselves hoping to fi nd the truth, a better truth, of ourselves. Often Hemingway’s protagonists are at the center of political confl ict but the deeply personal unfolding of his characters immediately suggests an overriding emphasis on the private realm. Within these private realm revelations, the reader continually confronts an outsider who, through war or resistance or isolation, rebels. It may be rebellion in a national battle but just as likely it may be rebellion in sport or a marriage. However, it is precisely when the individual confronts the collective, when the private and public intersect, that Hemingway’s probing insights into individual souls becomes profoundly political.
