How Ernest Hemingway’s War Experience Influenced His Writing as Shown in a Farewell to Arms and the Sun Also Rises

Research Paper

How Ernest Hemingway’s war experience influenced his writing as shown in A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises

English 102

John Thompson

Mr. Teplitz

Table of Contents

Bibliography……………………………….3-5

A Farewell to Arms………………………..6-10

The Sun Also Rises……………………….11-15

Conclusion………………………………..16-17

Bibliography

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park Illinois to Physician Ed Hemingway and pianist Grace Hemingway . Hemingway spent his childhood summers in upper Michigan , where he was able to hunt and fish . At age six , his father decided to move into an eight bedroom . (Greenhaven Press Inc, page 14)

Hemingway’s parents believed in a strict household . Sunday’s were spent going to church and worshiping the lord . His father taught him how to survive . He taught him how to use an ax and handle a gun , build a fire , prepare the game he caught in the wild . Throughout his teen years , he participated in and outdoor sports such as canoeing . Hemingway also grew articles for his school newspaper .

(Waldhorn, page 6)

Graduating from high school in June of 1917 , Hemingway’s on call now for Tyler Hemingway helped him get a job as a reporter working for the Kansas City Star newspaper . Even though he worked for the Star, he longed to be part of the American troops fighting in World War . Hemingway decided to join the military . Unfortunately, Hemingway was rejected due to an injury to his left eye . Still wanting to be a part of the war effort Hemingway and another man working for the Star, Theodore Brumback, signed up to be ambulance drivers for the American Red Cross . (Greenaven Press Inc, page 15)

On May 23rd, Hemingway and his friend Theodore Brumback when aboard the ship , Chicago , for the destination to France and then to Italy . On July 7 , 1918 they reached their destination and more quickly put to work as ambulance drivers in Milan, . Hemingway did not realize that ambulance drivers would be a significant part of the war . Their daily routine consisted of going into battlefields and picking up wounded or dead soldiers . They often would take the soldiers from their battlefields and take them to the mortuary . This was certainly a shock to Hemingway , he did not expect in ambulance driver would be picking up dozens of dead soldiers on the battlefields . (Greenhaven Press Inc, page 17)

Later on in the war , Hemingway volunteered to maintain a relief station In the Fossalta di Piave. On July 08th 1918, Hemingway was to deliver supplies to Italian soldiers, when an Austrian trench mortar shell hit him . Hemingway seen and Italian soldier by him who was also injured . In an attempt to rescue the soldier , Hemingway was wounded in the knees by a machine gun bullet . Hemingway was sent to a hospital for operations to try and remove shell . Two months later he was awarded the silver medal of valor by the Italian government . A few months later he was once again injured and had to return for hospitalization . (Waldorn, page 56)

While in the hospital , Hemingway became friendly with a nurse who attended to him named , Agnes Von Kurowsky. Shortly after he returned home , he received a letter from her saying she found someone else . Hemingway was heartbroken from the news and decided to write a novel about it called A Farewell to Arms. The novel is based on a nurse and meets a wounded soldier in a Milan hospital. In October 1926, The first printing of The Sun Also Rises sold out quickly . Hemingway and his wife Pauline decided to move to Key West, Florida . There, Hemingway worked on his novel of A Farewell to Arms . At the time, Pauline was pregnant so they moved to Kansas city or