Dear class:
I hope you all are doing well.
Your next major assignment seems to be the abstract or conference. For those who need it…..
……here’s how to think about the abstract:
An abstract is similar to an introduction but it is more detailed. The abstract allows for the use of the first person point of view and proposes possible answers to your research question. It also includes your reasoning for wanting to address that question.
Since you have already written your essay, what you can do is combine your introduction with your conclusion to structure it as an abstract. Simply do it in a way that tells readers what your essay covers or “will cover.” In other words, what does your essay accomplish? Please don’t just add your conclusion to your introduction; Instead, synthesize the information in both and add to it so that it may coherently show what your essay will accomplish.
Instructions say that your abstract needs to be about 300-350 words and must be formatted according to MLA. There’s an example attached with professor Coro’s instructions. Please download and review it for a better understanding. Be sure to format it as she does and be sure to make yours about 300-500 words.
I am open to questions and suggestions while I await professor Coro’s input.
Thank you!
Throughout the years men have been engrained in their minds that if they do not have this trait they are not truly men: Masculinity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. This stereotypical expectation from society has negatively impacted and pressured many young boys to prove themselves and has meddled with their emotional development. Ernest Hemingway’s father encouraged him at a very early age to suppress his feelings leading to life disrupting consequences. This essay is intended to prove how Ernest Hemingway’s childhood has affected his writing style.
The infamous war journalist and novelist, Ernest Hemingway, was born July. 21, 1899. He was raised by both of his parents in Oak Park, Illinois. He was brought up trying to find his personality with such different influences coming from his parents. His father, Clarence, was a physician who taught him to hunt and fish while his mother, Grace, was an opera singer who taught him more feminine activities such as playing instruments and singing. Ernest had very tough adolescent years, although he did excellent academically and was enrolled in many sports throughout high school, he still managed to run away from home. He enlisted in active service infantry just to be away from home. After that he decided to enlist in Red Cross Medical service where he took care of other patients and was even wounded. After that he still wanted to escape his toxic household, so he continued to keep himself occupied and he enlisted in the Italian infantry. Upon his arrival, he was viewed as a hero back at home after his service.
As we have all read, we see a “macho man” figure reflected in most of his stories. In his novels he portrays masculinity as something that is achieved rather than a gene or trait. Growing up his father always insisted on being manly which we see in his works. Clarence left a great emotional scar on Hemingway with the discovery of his suicide. His father Clarence killed himself with a shotgun at home because he was depressed. Seeing this, Ernest was confused at why his father would do that if he was always taught otherwise. He was traumatized with his lack of courage. His fascination with manliness was refined by the tragic experiences with his father.
Hemingway’s deteriorating physical wellbeing and grave mental state prevented his work from prospering during his later age. Returning from a trip from Africa his plane crashed and left him in critical condition. A few months later after receiving treatments and many forms of therapy with different doctors, Hemingway brought his works to a halt and accepted the fact that he was no longer able to continue his writings. His illness not only affected him physically but also mentally, he began to be very self-conscious about his appearance which only led him to become more depressed, and ultimately brought him to take his life. Just like his father he shot himself with a shotgun.
We can see Hemingway’s miserable life projected in his short story “Clean, Well Lighted Place”. This story is about two waiters and a man that visits the bar fairly often and gets highly intoxicated each time. One waiter is younger and is bitter because the old man continues to order drinks. This makes the waiter stay longer working and he just wants to go home to his wife. The other waiter is older and understands where the old man is coming from. He understands that some people need to escape to a “Clean, Well Lighted Place” to cope with their life problems.
This place to him was a place that wasn’t chaotic somewhere with clarity. The old man tried to commit suicide a week ago and the younger waiter says he wished he would’ve actually killed himself. In a way we can see the darkness portrayed in this story which goes back to his past.
His short story, “Francis Macomber”, is solely focused on being manly and courageous. This story is about Francis and his wife who go to Africa in a hunting expedition. The story reflects how Wilson is fearless, and how Francis is a coward. He notices that his wife has been watching Wilson and he wishes for his wife to see him as a strong and manly hunter, the way she views Robert Wilson. Although their marriage was rocky, this expedition was the cherry on top. He was found in a situation where he was put to the test. He found himself face to face with a lion, but at this moment he couldn’t be as fearless as he intended to be. In the story his efforts to meet up to his standards causes him for his wife to go on a rendezvous in the middle of the night with Wilson. After this Francis is just determined on winning his wife’s respect back and he tries to be more valiant. A couple days later Francis finally gets the chance to prove his wife he is a man; he shoots a buffalo. He even gets Wilsons’s approval, he notices he is changing and becoming brave. Unfortunately, his excitement didn’t last too long because this was not enough for his wife Margot, she shot her husband, and although everyone thought it to be a mistake, Wilson knew she did that on purpose.
In the story “Hills like White Elephants” we also see a form of masculinity. This story is about a man and woman in a very toxic and broken relationship. The girl in this story is probably around 19 or 20 years old. They are both waiting near a train station to go to Madrid. The story takes place around the 1920s in a bar where they begin to discuss whether she should proceed with getting a surgery. This procedure being an abortion. Throughout the story we can tell that she is nervous and has her emotions all over the place. She continues to fantasize about a future
with him and this child, but the man deceivingly makes her believe he has her best interest at heart and basically pushes for her to get the abortion. He tells her that he loves her to manipulate her into getting the procedure. He doesn’t care about her emotions or how this procedure will make her feel afterwards. She continues to say that she is fine so she would quiet him about the abortion. She no longer wants to be pushed into something she clearly doesn’t want to do. This young girl is scarred by his patronizing empathy. This shows us how Hemingway belittles women and puts men as superior or more likely to make the correct decision.
Based on the last two examples provided we can tell that the characters behavior and narrative events are terms of psychoanalytical concepts such as masculinity, sexuality, love and romance. We can tell that Hemingway’s form of writing mostly includes men acting dominant and belittling women. He makes women seem as submissive and less important. The operations of repression structure the work or inform it by the way the characters are acting. He makes it a constant point to impress women and seem valiant. Today, we are constantly trying to prove that they are in fact men. This feeling is something that can easily be crushed as soon as someone makes a statement minimizing them. Men are usually taught to not cry when they get hurt or feel sad, and unfortunately this is something that many kids grow up listening in order to not lose their manhood. This is something that the characters in Hemingway’s stories show. The work suggests about the psychological being of Hemingway that he might’ve had a rough upbringing, which indeed he did have. His father seemed to have many problems health and financial problems. This led his father to commit suicide. This is something that stuck to Hemingway and made him see his father as a weak character or a coward. Therefore, his work shows men with dominance and power, something that he wished he would’ve seen in his father.
https://www.notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Hemingway-Ernest.html
https://www.ernesthemingwaycollection.com/about-hemingway/ernest-hemingway-early-years
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/15/obituaries/leicester-hemingway-writer-and-ernest-s-brother-is- suicide.html#:~:text=In%201961%2C%20Ernest%20Hemingway%20killed,%2C%20Ill.%2C%20in%201928 . https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/h/hemingways-short-stories/summary-and-analysis/the-short- happy-life-of-francis-macomber
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/hills-like-white-elephants/summary/
