Collision And Reconciliation——An Analysis Of Hemingway’s Works Based On Hegel’s Collision Theory

Ernest Hemingway is a renowned American writer in the 20th century. He won the Pulitzer prize in 1953 and then the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 for his novel The Old Man and the Sea. In 2001, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms were listed in the best 100 English Novels in the 20th Century which was issued by Modern Library in the United States. As the representative of "the Lost Generation", Hemingway wrote in his tragic novels about Americans’confusion and uncertainty about life, the world, and existence. This thesis is to study his representative works The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. Based on the previous study, this thesis employs Hegel’s theory of tragic collisions to analyze different kinds of collisions in these works, and explores the causes of these conflicts and the tragic factors of their reconciliation.Besides an introduction and a conclusion, the thesis consists of three major chapters according to Hegel’s theory of tragic collisions. The first part analyzes the collisions between Jack Barnes and the society in The Sun Also Rises. After the First World War, the old values, ethics and ideals were clasped, which resulted in an inevitable collision between different values and people in the nihilistic society. Like the other young people, Jake Barnes lives an aimless and pleasure-seeking life in Europe, drinking and chatting every day. Lacking goals and life pursuit, he idles his life away. But Jake Barnes was not entirely lost. He strives to find his own value.The second part discusses collisions Robert Jordan encounters in his war experiences in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Robert Jordan was a university lecturer, and could have lived a comfortable and peaceful life. But he chooses to participate in an anti-fascist war, which is the root of conflict. In performing the duty of bombing a bridge, he falls in love with a woman. The dilemma lies in the task and his love. With some inner struggle, he carries out the task and gives up his love. Later, when he is betrayed, he sacrifices his life finally in order to shield his comrades. In this process which includes various collisions of love and greed and social relations, the protagonist gradually grows up to be a real anti-fascist warrior with great love and justice.The third part discusses the internal collision in The Old Man and the Sea. The collision between Santiago and the nature triggers the old man’s mental conflict. And the root of such a conflict is the contradiction between Santiago’s primary intention and the later understanding of the nature of the act itself. The conflict brings about destruction. The old man Santiago loses his sole partner because of his stubbornness. His fighting alone with the shark makes him realize that he is old and exhausted. Meanwhile, his firm belief that a man cannot be defeated sustained him to fight until both sides of the conflict get destroyed. It is such a dramatic conflict that causes his tragedy of fate and destruction.The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that Hemingway’s three novels respectively reveal collisions between man and social circumstances bring wounds and pains physically and spiritually, collisions between man and the war force him to face difficult choices and death, and collisions between man and his own act of fighting against nature bring him a total failure. At the same time, the male protagonists in Hemingway’s works more or less reflect Hemingway’s own attitude towards life:tragedy is inevitable. However, they do have a strong mind and never give in which makes them vivid and humane tragic heroes.