Emasculative Fears And Harmonious Gender Relationship Hemingway’s Gender View

Ernest Hemingway, one of the most important writers in contemporary Americanliterature and the most powerful figure in English literature in the20thcentury, hasbeen well-known for his stoic masculine style and the vivid description of male traitsand values. His name is always link to outdoors activities, such as bullfighting,hunting and fishing which are considered as masculine activities. Therefore, his nameis the synonym for "dauntless man". In the past, a great number of comments onHemingway in the academic circles were involved with the spirit of dauntless man,nihilistic thoughts, artistic achievements, symbolism and irony, and the theme of deathand immortality. But in recent years, attention in the academic circles has been paid inthe reflection of Hemingway’s gender view in his novels. People gradually focus onthe diversity and complexity of gender issues and explore the relationship with thereconstruction of gender.Comments on the female characters of Hemingway have been two sides: theaffirmative one and the negative one. Some critics hold that Hemingway ignoreswomen and is hostile to them. Others consider that Hemingway cannot describewomen but he is good at depicting men without women. While some critics divide thefemale characters of Hemingway into two parts: bitches and angels. With the rise of feminism in the1970s, Hemingway was attacked by some feminist critics whoaccused him of safeguarding traditional pattern of gender and mocked his femalecharacters as sexual pawns or stooges for his male characters. However, some criticsthink that the female characters of Hemingway are true to life and they play a vitalrole in his novels.The female characters having complex and diversified personalities reflectHemingway’s thoughts on gender issues and his peculiar understanding and shrewderinsight to female emotions. They are divided into three types. The first one are thewomen who are excluded from male egocentricity. They are called the traditionalwomen. The second one are the women who break the traditional gender mode. Theyare called modern women. The third one are the women who are ideal by Hemingway.Endowed with peculiar femininity, they own the firmness and persistence like the menand the independence and capacity like the modern women. Although shaping such agreat number of female characters, Hemingway factually reflect the gender situationsat that time and firmly pursue a harmonious gender relationship. Through thedescription of gender relationship in tense statement and the one he looks forward to,he tries to offer a satisfactory way to deal with gender issues.The theme of homosexuality and unconventional sexual practice inHemingway’s novels reflects the diversity and complexity of gender issues at thattime. Through Hemingway’s deep insight of gender issues, the paper rereads andreevaluates the female characters in his novels and his gender view in a newperspective.The thesis is composed of three chapters. The first chapter "from ofHemingway’s gender view" mainly expounds three factors influencing Hemingway’sgender view, that is social factors, emotional factors and family factors. After the FirstWorld War, the whole western countries and American society experienced thetransformation of gender mode. With the rise of female social status, women’s desireto freedom and equality has become stronger and stronger. The victory of feminismhas been a shock and challenge to traditional gender mode men-centered. In light ofacute insight, Hemingway realized great changes of culture and showed them in his novels to reflect his attitude towards gender roles and gender identity.Hemingway was grown up from an environment of ambiguous sexual identity.When he was a little child, his mother used various methods to dress him up the samewith his elder sister who was just18months older than him. Such as wearing thesame clothes, playing with the same toys, have the same hairstyle and so on.Therefore, Hemingway potentially was unsure that he was male or blend of male andfemale. His mother was just a leader in his family. Although he disliked herdictatorship and his father’s cowardice, he really admired artistic talents of his mother.Such family environment endowed him with a particular androgynous perspective,which is the reason why he showed ambiguous attitudes and emasculative fears whenhe shaped female characters.Chapter two "Hemingway’s Emasculative Fears Towards Women" mainlyexpounds his emasculative fears cause by female characters in his novels, such asCatherine in The Garden of Eden, Margaret the Short Happy Life of FrancisMacomber and Helen in the Snows of Kilimanjaro. They are called modern womenwho are independent and strong-minded. The analysis of them shows Hemingway’sambiguous attitude. For one thing, he speaks highly of their independence and artistictalents; for another, he is worried about the men’s anguish of castration. He advocateswomen’s freedom and admires their independence and innovation. But at the sametime, he fears that they will be a threat to men’s power and egocentricity in the society.Although Hemingway realizes that traditional gender mode is unreasonable andwomen should make changes, he is afraid that such changes can weaken femininityand manliness.Chapter three "the Harmonious Gender Relationship Hemingway LooksForward to" mainly expounds the harmonious relationship by analyzing femalecharacter in his novels, such as the harmonious relationship between Renata andKanter Will in Across the River and Into the Tress, Maria and Jordon in For Whomthe Bell Tolls, and Catherine and Henry in A Farewell to Arms. The analysis of themshows the ideal women in Hemingway’s mind who are loved by men and get alongwell with men. In the relationship, those women devote themselves to love and give men warmth and happiness. While they never make men have emasculative fears. Inhis life, Hemingway looked forward a harmonious relationship which is based onmutual love, mutual trust, mutual tolerance and mutual understanding, which is not achallenge to traditional gender mode, but also a challenge to feminists. To sum up,Hemingway admits the difference between men and women and advocates aharmonious relationship between them. In his eyes, the conflicts can be replaced byequality. The ideal women his mind is neither angels nor ghosts. On the contrary, theyare reliable, loyal and authentic. It is they that make men believe the true love in theworld and know that the true love should be based on mutual trust and mutual love. Itis the harmonious gender relationship that is the one Hemingway looks forward to.