Final Project

During the course of the semester, we focused our energy on the life of Hemingway and others of the Lost Generation in Paris. By reading Hemingway, and other’s accounts of his life in Paris, we gained extensive knowledge of his emotional status. To open up this calmative blog post, we start with a response to the first chapter of A Moveable Feast.   

“A Good Cafe. . ."  Hemingway happens upon cafes filled with filth, wreaking of booze and fumes. Walking the withered and slanted streets of Paris is no different from his quest or documentation of finding such cafe. The streets of Paris are unique, but different in a way that London and New York City fail to resemble. Each street has a culture, an economy, and natives. Rue de Saint Denis is no different from the cesspool of rue Mouffetard mentioned by Hemingway. Fortunately for the piétons of Paris wearing white shoes, when it rains, as Hemingway has mentioned, the sadness of the city flocks indoors and the windows and doors of homes shut when the rain begins to fall. In this early introduction to Hemingway, his account of Paris left a strong impression and opened us to this foreign world in which Hemingway had just escaped to. 

In the early days of Hemingway's life in Paris, he lived with little money and an address of 74 rue Cardinal Lemoine, which instantly classified his existence in Paris as a poor one. In search of books to borrow, Hemingway nervously entered the popular library and bookstore known as Shakespeare and Company. His nerves came from the lack of money he had for a library subscription, but to his surprise, the owner, Sylvia Beach was generous, kind and most importantly, trusting. 

Hemingway recorded his first interaction with Sylvia and wrote about it immensely in A Moveable Feast. Hemingway’s first few moments in Paris really highlighted what it meant to be an expatriate and how it felt to lose, or forcefully remove your home. As Hemingway was looking for a cafe to drink and a bookstore to find books written in English, he was undoubtedly searching for something that resonated with home. 

Even in the writings of others, in regards to Hemingway, the act of searching for his American ideal existed. For example, from Hemingway's brief profile of Sylvia, an image of a bright, youthful woman with "pretty legs" and a warm heart, effortlessly defines my impression of this woman. However, in her memoirs, more specifically around the time of Nazi occupation in Paris, her actions with Hemingway begin to make sense. Before the occupation, the United States strongly urged all Americans living in Paris to return. Sylvia strongly opposed the idea, and "settled down to share life in Nazi-occupied Paris with (her) friends." Forced to comply with many of the restrictions that her Jewish friends were given, her love for Paris and culture of the French became apparent. 

It seemed that Hemingway’s admiration for Sylvia lied not only in her overwhelming trust and affection for himself, but also her strong character and opposition to returning to the States. 

To understand Hemingway’s reasoning behind leaving the United States and choosing to live a economically poor life, we must understand the generalized term given to all expatriates whom left the Sates. 

Une Génération Perdue or The Lost Generation originates from an encounter that Gertrude Stein had with her local mechanic. In A Moveable Feast by Ernst Hemingway, Hemingway recounts his conversation with Stein, where she demands that he yield to her opinion on the idea of a lost generation of people. 

The history behind the 'lost' generation stems from the generation of men and women who returned from the war (World War I). In an A&E biography of The Lost Generation, it is said from the lips of Hemingway's friend that once Hemingway returned from his tour in Europe, he felt out of place and eventually his family forced him from their home. It was mentioned that many of the men and women who served felt that no one in their homeland understood the traumas that they were faced with, leading to a complete disconnect with society. This generation of returning men and women were among the now infamous group of expat artists who are now regarded as the most influential figures in the art world of the 20th century. 

This generation of Americans who were viciously sculpted by the war, were able to escape the ignorance of their families and friends by fleeing to a place such as Paris, to reconnect with people who understood their struggles. After the conclusion of The Great War, Western Countries, specifically The United States, experienced a period of growth that could only be tamed by the complete collapse of the financial industry. 

The new methods of manufacturing relied almost entirely on the mechanization of factories and this switch from manual labor to machines is reflected in the new wave of art of this time, which was spearheaded by The Lost Generation of writers and artists living and working in Paris. Stein, Hemingway, Dos Pasos, Picasso, and others were able to coexist and cohesively create new forms of artwork due to the scars and trauma that each individual shared. For example, in the A&E biography mentioned previously, Dos Pasos is said to have come from a well-off family, but instead of relying on his families assets, he had a desire to experience what it was to create. 

Hemingway’s style of writing was undoubtedly influenced by this trauma mentioned above. Having experienced such vivid and saturated events in war, it seems that his style was a response to this. Throughout A Moveable Feast and The Sun Also Rises lie dense passages of text, where description trumps narrative. However, these descriptions lack color. When eating a meal, where many courses are involved it is customary to have a palate cleanser. This is important as to ensue that the last dish does not interfere with the next. This culinary action lends itself well when using it to describe the methods behind Hemingway. 

To conclude this post, which mainly focused on the actions of Hemingway and an attempt explain his writing style, it becomes apparent that his escape from America resulted in the creation of a new home. He was given the chance to create, but not without burdens of home. He may have felt that boarding a ship to Paris would free his creativity, but instead he brought the traumatic experiences with him and in turn was left creating works, which lacked a certain element of Hemingway’s writing style that we never had the ability to discovery.