Hemingway

 

Ernest Hemingway had a public bravado rivaled by very few. What was beneath the Hemingway image? He wrote 6 novels. His last novel published in 1952 was The Old Man and the Sea. This disquisition is a kaleidoscope in that it incorporates and applies Erik H Erikson’s psychosocial model of human developmental crises to Hemingway, and the protagonist -the old man in his last novel.

An early child crisis sets the stage for Hemingway’s development of character. Grace, a musician, was Hemingway’s mother and Clarence, a physician, was his father. Family lived in Oak Park, Illinois with Grace’s father Ernest. His sister Marcelline was a year older than Ernest. Grace allowed Ernest’s hair to grow long and dressed him in fluffy, girly outfits so the two would look like twins during his first three years. Gender identity, oedipal issues and identifications became compromised. Being treated like a girl, with gender diffusion, became imprinted and the basis to overcompensate this inadequacy. His ambivalence love-hate and identification for his mother resulted in him being involved in the school orchestra, for two years with Marceline, and receiving good grades in English. At a later date, he stated that he hated his mother.

Clarence took him camping, hunting, and fishing in the woods and lakes of northern Michigan this providing him with a masculine role and identity. These masculine traits were exhibited in high school as he participated in boxing, track and field, water polo and football. In essence, Hemingway’s character trait tendencies and personality are now well-established. Hemingway’s battle with survival and death surfaced throughout his life. This emotional drive and need was established early and exemplified in his accepting injury, punishment to mutilate his self and to seek and enjoy punishment, illness and misfortune. He stated “When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality … Then when you’re badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion and know it can happen to you.” Did that acknowledgement end his cognition and preoccupation with injury and death?

A narcissistic injury occurred when he failed his enlistment in World War I. However, he became an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. In a month or so he was seriously wounded by mortar fire after returning from the canteen bringing chocolate and cigarettes to the men at the front line. Despite his injury, he assisted Italian soldiers to safety and was decorated with the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. Other physical injuries sustained: 1. Compound spiral fracture and seven-week hospitalization suffered in a car accident. The nerves in his hand took as long as a year to heal. He suffered intense pain. 2. Contracted amoebic dysentery in Africa 3. Hospitalized for concussion from a car accident. He also had another concussion 4. Car accident which he smashed his knee and sustained another deep wound on his forehead 4. Two plane crashes in Africa included another concussion, a leaking of cerebral fluid, head wounds and second-degree burns on his legs, front torso, lips, left hand and right forearm burns 5. A fall in the bathroom which left him with a permanent scar.

Examples of a lifestyle that put him in harm’s way after World War I included: 1. Hemingway was one of the last British and American journalists to leave the Battle of Ebro which was the last Republican stand in the Spanish Civil War 2. He attempted to convince the Cuban government to help him refit his boat so he could ambush German submarines 3. He accompanied troops to the Normandy landings. He came in sight of Omaha Beach but was not allowed ashore 4. He attached himself to the 22^nd infantry Regiment as it drove towards Paris. He impersonated an infantry captain to group of resistance fighters and was brought up on formal charges, but he beat the rap for claiming that he only offered advice. 5. He observed fighting in the battle of the Hurtgen Forest 6. Covered the Battle of the Bulge and was hospitalized with pneumonia. He was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery during World War II.

Hemingway had difficulty with drugs and booze, depression and was paranoid. He thought the FBI was monitoring him because of financial trouble. He had numerous electroconvulsive therapy treatments and was diagnosed with hemochromatosis. He inherited this condition from his father. This terrible condition caused the excessive accumulation of iron in the cells and propelled mental and physical deterioration.

Also in Hemingway’s history, was his difficulty with being alone and his troubled interpersonal relationships with women? Emotionally, he was initially attracted to females and married four times and divorced three times. He wanted to marry a young nurse while he was hospitalized during the First World War but was rejected when she told him she was engaged to an Italian officer. While being in a failing marriage, with Pauline, he met Martha and divorced Pauline and married Martha. During their marriage he met Mary and then divorced Martha and married Mary. Also, Hemingway had a platonic relationship with 19-year-old when 49 years of age. On a sad note, his father committed suicide, his brother committed suicide and his son committed suicide. Pauline’s father also committed suicide. During that suicide Hemingway commented, “I’ll probably go in the same way.”

Briefly, Ernest Hemingway overcompensated for his early experiences as a girl by engaging in the macho male behavior. However, he hated himself as he hated his mother as exemplified with his repetition compulsion of failed female relationships. At times, he was brilliant and the executive functioning of his ego dominated in his creative writing. However, emotionally he was impulsive, driven by irrational drives and displaced his anger inward and outward. His critical superego punished him over and over as well.

I shall employ Erik Erickson’s ideas regarding psychosocial development during the eight ages of man. It should be noted that successful resolution of each stage of development contributes greatly in a positive way during the lifecycle. Without successful stage resolution, makes it difficult to fully progress to the next stage. With that being said, the following should be noted: 1. Developing a Sense of Basic Trust versus Basic Mistrust applies significantly to Hemingway. Ernest was reared as a girl thus making it difficult to resolve the oedipal complex dynamics. His identifications suffered and his insecurity had to be overcompensated significantly with his taking on the masculine, rugged macho role during his entire life. That Oedipal dynamic interfered with his psychological ability to develop basic trust with his mother, the first dominant female figure in his life. So it’s not surprising, that he had troubled ongoing female relationships. He was demanding, controlling, physically and verbally abusive. With mistrust, the mechanisms of paranoia develop and the difficulty to distinguish between real and unreal.

 With masculine identification, he tackled the developing a Sense of Industry versus Inferiority successfully, in part, as exhibited by his award winning achievement within the executive functions within his ego. He was successful with school and developed the ability to write. During writing times, his ego dominated .His drives and his conscience became subordinated. The focus and energy he put into his writing was supreme and second to none .Nothing else seemed significant to him. However, too many of his decisions were irrational and self-destructive.

 His energy displacement masked the balance between his male and female conflicts. This displacement of his drives put him into harm’s way which he used for his writing material because of the real life and death danger in his experiences. In other words, issues around developing a Sense of Identity versus Role Confusion facilitated his wonderful ability to tell stories that pertained to his own experiences. Of course, these experiences reinforced his self-hate and unconscious risk to die. War, death, loss were themes in his novels as well as his own troubled life. Sexually, he allowed his unconscious fears to be expressed in play. In bed, he was the female and his wife was the male.

 His difficulty in the stage of developing a Sense of Intimacy versus Isolation was regularly repeated with repetition compulsion. Hemingway was great at catching like a fishermen or killing his prey just like the protagonist. He had great skills of seduction, charm and like a spider’s web he captured his victim. His focus and energy was unsurpassed and his infatuation and genital love drive was tremendous. Hemingway, however could not maintain his infatuation drive and exhibited controlling, dominating and verbally abusive behavior. Like the protagonist, who went out every day to fish, Hemingway had to have new prey. He was fearful of isolation, unable to tolerate separation or being alone. However, once he captured his prey it died and was symbolically like the dead skeleton of the Marlin.  His favorite bar in Key West was Sloppy Joe’s and had a very difficult time being alone while wife Martha left him in Key West to be involved in covering World War II.

 Hemingway’s novels and other writings contributed to his teaching the world about the trials and tribulations of irrational war, conflicts, about life itself with the shadow of death lurking. This stage is called developing a Sense of Generativity versus Stagnation.

 The last stage in Erickson’s model is developing a Sense of Integrity versus a Sense of Despair. To be successful in this stage, relates to being able to successfully pass through the seven previous stages. Already, we know he hasn’t been able to easily navigate the previous stages. With integrity the individual has to be able to have an acceptance of his life which importantly includes a love for one’s parents. He hated his mother.  One has to be able to master all the physical and economic threats and confrontations that interferes with one’s well-being of which he was not able to accomplish. Drugs, alcohol, cerebral concussions, numerous physical injuries, DNA inheritance and with despair, the individual is unable to start another life and try alternate roads to reach his integrity. With despair, Hemingway was depressed and feared living. At the end, he was depressed, paranoid and that was coupled with severe physical impairments, multiple concussions, hemochromatosis, paranoia, depression and ECT treatment as well. Suicide with 5 family members in 4 generations and financial difficulties tell an important segment of his story. Although, Ernest’s moral principles were suspect, his honesty was best expressed in his novels, he didn’t fear death, and he welcomed death .Because, in large part, of his tremendous physical and emotional pain, Ernest died without integrity.

With the protagonist in The Old Man and the Sea, we saw the old man at the last stage of his life. Was he developing a sense of integrity or was he in a state of despair? With repetition compulsion, the aging old man put himself at risk daily by going out into the sea in his small boat with limited supplies. He traveled to kill or to catch; to have his masculinity emasculated; or to be killed. He was alone except for being befriended by one young boy. He was old, tired and beyond his productive years. His impotency was illustrated when he was unable to successfully fight, with bloodied hands, off the sharks and brought back just the skeleton of the Marlin. We don’t know if he loved his parents but we do know that he had limited skills and likely didn’t have the opportunity for a different lifestyle. Economically he lived day-to-day. We do know that he was alone and life consisted of him being nonproductive and less effective. The end suggests a tired aging man in despair, broken and awaiting death.