Gender Identity and Representation in Ernest Hemingways works

My dissertation papers aim is to put forward the differences between men and women in
society and to find out the answer for questions such as the following ones: Are men superior to
women and women inferior to men? Are there moments in which women seem to rebel and
claim their rights? How do men react in such situations?

Firstly, it is important to underline the fact that Ernest Hemingway has often been criticized
as a misogynist because of his portrayal of women. He made this gender struggle a primary concern
of his fiction, creating women with strength, depth, and complexity (Broer, web) but he was unable
to cover his anti-women attitude in his works. He is supposed to be a bias sexist as his short stories
were entirely male-dominated and gender problems are central in his short stories. He reflects a
form of oppression suffered by his not very wise women. He also displays the difficulties men
encounter while dealing with women in the liberated post-war American society.
His masculine characters are usually reasonable, knowledgeable. Sometimes they are
usually post-war veterans or just men seeking for pleasure. In contrast, his female characters are
more feminine, passive and not convincing and most of his stories lack female characters. Most of
his female characters are treated as unimportant fools merely regarded as objects by men.
Hemingway might be called a hater of women, misogynist, sexist, or racist. He seems to
express his repressed attitudes or failures by repressing his female characters. It seems that
ignoring women and belittling them provided a path toward achieving what he desired in his own
life. In addition, he respects friendship between members of the same sex and provides the theme
that men and women have fundamentally different ways of seeing things that leads to change in
the once-happy relationship between boys and girls. [8]
In order to clarify the inequality between men and women and thus find an answer for the
questions regarding the superiority and respectively the inferiority of women I concentrated myself
on some of Hemingways best short stories. The first one is entitled Hills Like White Elephants.

Hills Like White Elephants is the story of an American man and a young woman waiting
for a train in Spain. As they talk we come to know that the woman is pregnant and the man
convinces her for the abortion. In other words the man entirely decides for her life, she has no right

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to oppose, the only thing she is allowed to do is to obey and respect the decisions taken by others
in her name.
Jig, the female character in this story is very naive, she doesnt want to make an abortion,
but she takes the decision to make it just because the man wants her do to do it. She is unable to
take decisions for herself and thus she lets others decide for her life hoping that afterwards
everything will be fine (Hemingway, 18) while she claims without thinking that she doesnt care
about her (Hemingway, 18). The man, however, is not willing to oblige her to take a decision
which she doesnt want but things simplify very much because this woman, Jig is unable to decide
for her life. Even if there is contradiction between the two partners, the man is the leader and the
woman is a simple object easy to manipulate.
This is a situation in which the woman should have tried to defend her rights as a future
mother but she didnt and so again a woman proves that she cannot break the mans word, being
afraid that such a decision could affect their relationship.

Throughout the story, one can notice Hemingway's rigid concept of masculinity. The
American man is portrayed as omniscient, knowledgeable, worldly, and always in control of
himself and the situation at hand. He is cool and feigns indifference, such as when he tells the girl
that he doesn't care whether she has the abortion or not. He tries to convince the girl by
oversimplifying the operation and relentlessly pushes her to have it. He lacks the sympathy and
understanding she would deserve in such a crisis. In contrast, the girl is less assertive and
persuasive. She is nameless, helpless, confused, and indecisive. [2]

Cat in the Rain is another short story in which one can notice a husbands indifferent and
uncaring behavior. Here, the woman tries to improve a cold relationship but it seems that the man
is the real determiner and the lonely cat in the rain is her mirror image. [3]
The indifference of the husband is very obvious when the woman worries for a poor kitty
trying to keep dry under a table (Hemingway, 9). The husband becomes very indifferent, he just
went on reading (Hemingway, 9) after he initially offered to bring that cat to his wife and she
stubbornly refused.

The wife doesnt like her husband but she respects the hotel-keeper. Perhaps this is the
kind of man she would like to have, a man who would be able to fulfill her expectations: She

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liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way
he wanted to serve her. (Hemingway, 10)

The American wifes desire is to feel important (Hemingway, 11) she doesnt like to be
treated with the indifference the way her husband does. The attitude of her husband is a very cold
one, he wants her to accept the idea of looking like a boy and stop complaining that she wants
specific things. The man decides for her, she has no right to demand something without his consent.
The supreme authority of the man can be observed after his wife expresses her desire to eat at a
table with her own silver [...] and candles, to have a kitty and some new clothes (Hemingway,
12) and his answer is somehow violent and authoritarian: Oh, shut up and get something to read.
(Hemingway, 12).

Thus, this story shows that women are under mens legacy with apparently no rights but
many responsibilities, the most important being that of listening to the rules imposed by their
leaders. However, the American wife in this story expresses her desire for a change. She wants to
change her countenance, she wants long hair, then a cat and new clothes. She got tired of looking
like a boy (Hemingway, 11). This attitude could be appreciated as one of mild rebellion. However,
the womans rebellion is stopped by her husbands ignorance. In his opinion, she doesnt have the
right to claim something new, to advance, on the contrary she must comply with what she already
had and not to ask for something more.

Nick, an American soldier from the story In Another Country believes that by getting
married one is putting himself in a position of eventual loss, therefore he wants to find things he
cannot lose. This male dominated story has nothing to do with the role of women in society the
only role which was given to women was that they are the indicators of concept of loss and made
life more painful than it was. All women and their love would leave you one day, so he did not
recommend getting married. Marriage is a reminder of loss. [5]

In the story The snows of Kilimanjaro, Harry's views about women are clear. Harry so
many times calls his wife "You bitch, you rich bitch!" or "You are the destroyer of my talent" or
he says "When I fall in love with another woman that woman should always have more money than
the last one". In Harrys opinion women do nothing else but destroy mens lives. However there
is a price for that as long as he asserts that a woman must be rich for him to fall in love with. In

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other words men are interested in what women can offer to them, a kind of agreement seems to
take shape inside the relationship between a man and a woman. [6]

In the short stories above can be noticed how women are trying to attract attention and
please men while they are totally uncaring, usually drunk and faithless. Women are stereotyped
and are rather ignored than respected. They often follow men but are left alone without being asked
about their personal or deep emotions. Hemingway is either mocking female characters or ignoring
them. He sometimes equals marriage to loss and this is a reflection of his torrid and unsatisfying
marriages.

Generally speaking Hemingways short story protagonists are usually of two types:

The first type is his code hero, who is an ideal man full of courage, chivalry, and
experience, who usually drinks too much and it is fond of sex, war and sport. For instance Wilson,
in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, or the American man in Hills Like White Elephants.

The second type is the coward man who follows no codes like Macomber in The Short
Happy Life of Francis Macomber.

On the other side the female characters discussed in his short stories are also of two types:

Firstly, they are nameless, passive, childish, and are considered as an "outsider" or an
"other". These unidentified women, usually unmarried, are treated as objects that after being worn
out or having less fun are replaced or removed from the life of men. In Hills Like White Elephants
the woman is not even able to order a drink because her husband speaks Spanish not her.
Furthermore, in the story Cat in the Rain, the woman cares for materialistic things like
silver things or a cat while living with an uncaring man who ignores all her desires even the fact
that she looks like a boy. Women like these are easily called and seen by men as a "bitch". This is
the bitch icon that is almost present in all Hemingways works.

The second type are the clever and very active women. Although they are active they
usually are villains. They are betrayers who prefer life with wealthy men and accept the relaxing
social values of the Jazz Age.
Hemingway most often focuses on issues related to masculinity. And gender problems are
central in his short stories. He reflects a form of oppression suffered by his not very wise women.

4
He also displays the difficulties men encounter while dealing with women in the liberated post-
war American society.
His masculine characters are usually reasonable, knowledgeable. Sometimes they are
usually post-war veterans or just men seeking for pleasure. In contrast, his female characters are
more feminine, passive and not convincing and most of his stories lack female characters. Most of
his female characters are treated as unimportant fools merely regarded as objects by men.
Hemingway might be called a hater of women, misogynist, sexist, or racist. He seems to
express his repressed attitudes or failures by repressing his female characters. It seems that
ignoring women and belittling them provided a path toward achieving what he desired in his own
life. In addition, he respects friendship between members of the same sex and provides the theme
that men and women have fundamentally different ways of seeing things that leads to change in
the once-happy relationship between boys and girls. (Assemi, web)

References:

Assemi, Arezoo; Ebadi Asayesh, Maryam,; Jabraili Amine; Sheikhzade, Mostafa;

Hajmohammadian, Mahnaz, Women Ignorance in Short Stories of Hemingway, 2012 International
Conference on Language, Medias and Culture IPEDR vol.33 (2012) (2012) IACSIT Press,
Singapore, http://www.ipedr.com/vol33/009-ICLMC2012-L00022.pdf

Broer, L. R. & Holland, G. & Sanderson, R. & Sinclair, G. & Barlowe, J. & Willingham, K. G.
Hemingway and Women: Female Critics and the Female Voice. Tuscaloosa: The University of
Alabama Press, 2002. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/22530

Chira, Luana, Ernest Hemingways BEST TEN SHORT STORIES, Note si exercitii, editura ALL
Educational S.A., 1998