摘 要

海明威是美国文学史上一位伟大的小说家，作为硬汉形象的代言人，海明威写下了许多关于死亡的小说。他对于死亡的理解经历了一系列的变化。本文将从对海明威以及他的小说简短介绍开始，通过分析他的三部小说，集中论述他的死亡原理经历了从初识死亡，到直面死亡，再到超越死亡的转变，最终得出结论：对于海明威死亡观的理解可以帮我们更加深入认知他本人及其小说。

关键词：海明威；死亡观；转变

Contents

1. Introduction.......................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration...................................................................................................2

2.1 Introduction to Western Philosophy of Death.................................................2

2.2. Introduction to Hemingway’s death concept .................................................3

2.3. Transformation of death concept in Hemingway’s novels ............................4

2.3.1. Witnessing death—Indian Camp ................................................................4

2.3.2. Facing death—A Farewell to Arms..............................................................7

2.3.3. Surpassing death—For Whom the Bell Tolls ...............................................9

3. Conclusion..........................................................................................................11

Works Cited............................................................................................................13

Bibliography............................................................................................................14

The Transformation of Death Concept in Hemingway’s Novels

1. Introduction

As an important part of life cycle, death is an eternal theme of human beings, which is always the mystery that makes people obsessed. On the one hand, people seek life insistently; on the other hand, they have to face the challenge of death. As the most sensitive topic of human beings, literary artists put the issue of life and death as one of the most essential and greatest themes in literature and they try their best to seek better ways and crucial meanings of life by mean of searching into the matter of death.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), an American novelist and short-story writer, was one of the great American writers of the 20^th century. He was the son of a country doctor and worked as a reporter for Kansas City Star after graduating from high school in 1917. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France and in the Italian infantry and he was wounded just before his 19^th birthday. Later, while working in Paris as a correspondent for the Toronto Star, he became involved with the expatriate literary and artistic surrounding Gertrude Stein. During the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway served as a correspondent on the loyalist side. He fought in World War II and then settled in Cuba in 1945. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. After his expulsion from Cuba by the Castro regime, he moved to Idaho. He was increasingly plagued by ill health and mental problems, and in July, 1961, he committed suicide by shooting himself. Hemingway’s first books, Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923), In our Time (short stories, 1924), and The Torrents of Spring (a novel, 1926), attracted attention primarily because of his literary style. With the publication of The Sun Also Rises (1926), he was recognized as the spokesman of the “lost generation” (so called by Gertrude Stein). His next important novel, A Farewell to Arms (1929), tells of a tragic wartime love affair between an ambulance driver and an English nurse. Hemingway also published such volumes of short stories as Men Without Women (1927) and Winner Take Nothing (1933), as well as The Fifth Column, a play. From his experience in the Spanish Civil War came Hemingway’s great novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), which, in detailing an incident in the war, argues for human brotherhood (苍月5). 　

Many of Hemingway’s works are concerned with war, and therefore, deal with the topic of life and death. His point of view toward death was shaped by his experience as a young man in the First World War and his near death on the battle field. Hemingway's personal life went through countless sufferings and miseries, which caused his profound understanding of death. However, his concept of death didn’t remain unchanged. On the contrary, his attitude toward death underwent great changes with the change of his experiences, which were vividly reflected from his great novels.

1. Demonstration

2.1. Introduction to Western Philosophy of Death

According to different perspectives and purposes, there are various definitions of death. Heraclitus, well-known as the founder of dialectics, regarded death as “ ordinary” (30), which means that death is all things that we could see when we wake up. However, Schopenhauer, a modern philosopher, defined death as follows: death is "the patron saint of philosophical inspiration” and philosophy is the starting point of death, and if there were no death for human beings, people would hardly make philosophical thinking (169). To be more specific, death plays an important role in the whole process of people’s life, serving as one of the cultural issues. At all times and in all countries, many philosophers have considered the question of death; therefore, death has been a philosophy. The philosophy of death has the meaning of outlook on life or values not just because the people who possess the consciousness of death can make plans for their lives reasonably, but what’s more the death is a problem related to outlook on life or values. However, so-called outlook on life or values is the meaning or value that makes people’s limited life eternal.

2.2. Introduction to Hemingway’s death theme