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Death - a captivating, and often terrifying, subject. Many authors broach this subject, but only some do it well. Ernest Hemingway is one of those few authors who not only explores death, but provides us with dynamic spectrum of approaches and opinions as he ages, matures, and learns. His style, one of "aesthetic shock", meant to force the reader to look to the world as though they never had before (//Ernest Hemingway -// Burgess, pg 31//),// leant itself to this uncomfortable and unsettling topic, a topic that he explored in his books as he met it in life.

His first real encounter with death came during his time as an ambulence driver in WWI. Before this, the only death he had experienced was that of the animals he shot, and secondhand accounts during his time as a journalist. On his first day as a driver, his assignment was to go to an exploded munitions factory and pick up the pieces of mutilated bodies left behind. (//Ernest Hemingway -// Burgess, pg 20//).// His proximity to death throughout the war undoubtedly influenced his works, as it seems as though he was forever trying to come to grips with the meaning of it all, placing this insecurity and fear into false bravado in his works. Throughout his works, his main protagonist have to deal with near death (Old Man and the Sea), someone close to them dying (Farewell to Arms), or their own death (Snows of Kilimanjaro).

While in Spain, he fell in love with the sport of bullfighting, in which the matador is forever courting death. He sees the matador conquering the bull as him conquering death, for he did not allow the bull to kill him. (//Ernest Hemingway -// Nagel, pg 12//)// This idea of man vs. beast, each trying to kill one another, man conciously and beast out of instinct, comes back in //The Old Man and the Sea.// Santiago's triumph over the marlin is his own personal "bullfight". However, as the sharks eat the marlin, there is no triumph in a victory over death, because it is a futile attempt in the end, and death always ultimately triumphs. (//The Old Man and the Sea -// Hemingway, pg 111//).//

Hemingway's views of death changed as he did. When he was still a young man, his father killed himself. This greatly unsettled the young artist, for although he greatly admired the courting of death, embracing it, or, worse, seeking it out, was shameful. (//Ernest Hemingway -// Burgess, pg 53) However, as he grew, his thoughts on death took a dramatic turn. Because of the type of author he was, he had to accept simple truths and tell them as they were - this includes those terrifying and disquieting truths of death. When asked how an ex-wife of his died, he answered, "She died like everybody else. And after that she was dead." Forced to embrace what he saw as the truth, he fell into a dark depression. On July 2, 1991, he committed suicide, ending his fascination with death and following in his fathers footsteps for the first and last time. (//Ernest (Miller) Hemingway, pg 1)//

Burgess, Anthony. //Ernest Hemingway//. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. //The Old Man and the Sea//. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.

"Hemingway, Ernest (Miller) (1899-1961)." //DISCovering Authors//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. // Student // // Resource // // Center //// - Junior //. Gale. Boyertown Jr. High School West. 25 May. 2010 .

Nagel, James. "Ernest Hemingway." //DISCovering Authors//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. // Student // // Resource // // Center //// - Junior //. Gale. Boyertown Jr. High School West. 26 May. 2010 .