The evolution of the Hemingway code hero: Shedding the lost generation mentality and mastering existential stoicism

Carl Walter Roach, Purdue University

Abstract

There exists an extensive lapse in scholarship that investigates the progression and development of Ernest Hemingway's concept of a code hero. Past critics have correctly analyzed many of the characteristics and elements that make up Hemingway's initial concept of a code hero; nevertheless, they fail to pursue the possibility that Hemingway's code hero existed in stages and developed through time. Research pertaining to Hemingway's later writing considers the differences between the stages largely insignificant or merely stylistic. This study argues that Hemingway's code hero evolved through time, demonstrating an eventual rejection of the lost generation mentality and the belief that one is solely tied to the whims of fate and nature. Instead, Hemingway's later code hero is an existential stoic who is proactive in his life, superseding the chaotic and unordered elements that surround him to create a more valuable and meaningful existence. The evolution of Hemingway's code hero is best exemplified by studying Nick Adams in "Big Two-Hearted River" (1925), Pedro Romero in The Sun Also Rises (1926), and Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea (1952).

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Stacy, Purdue University.

Subject Area

American literature

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