A Spatial Approach To Hemingway's Aged Characters

Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899—July 2, 1961) is one of the most important and influential modern American writers, the sixth Nobel Prize winner for literature in American literary history. His work has been widely read and researched. However, Hemingway's many aged characters have seldom been given a systemetic and comprehensive study. With the fast approaching of the aging society, when"aged care"has become a world-wide concern, we find that Hemingway by means of unique artistic style, has paid systematic and deep attention to the full panorama of aged life.This paper investigates Hemingway's aged characters through the lens of both contemporary western spatial theory as well as the ancient Chinese spatial theory expressed in The Book of Changes.Based on Lefebvre's triadic treatment of human spaces and other related spatial concepts, like that of Deleuze's (1969) BwO (Body without Organs), Foucault's heterotopia, as well as the traditional Chinese Taoist notions, This paper chooses to focus on Hemingway's Count Mippipopolous in The Sun Also Rises, Count Greffi in A Farewell to Arms, the nameless old man in"Old Man at the Bridge,"Anselmo in For Whom the Bell Tolls, the old man in"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,"old Santiago in Old Man and the Sea. By means of detailed analysis of the texts, the paper seeks to see that the aged at a special stage of human life may start their free poetic space.This paper consists of five chapters between an introduction and the conclusion.The introduction provides a general review of the possible causes of critics'neglect of Hemingway's aged characters and a lay-out of the whole dissertation.Chapter One starts with a brief review of practices of spatial theories, specific questions this research seeks to probe, including 1)a spatial concern over the body to treat body as the spatial converging site of space, time and energy; 2) How energy consumption contributes to the production of space in old age, with related concept of BwO (body without organs) raised by Deleuze to view the satisfied and intensified flow of the energy inside the organic body. The old man is thus physically prepared to enter into Heidegger's"poetic dwelling"; 3) How the self in its lived space seeks to understand and enlarge its own space in terms of the attitudes he adopts in life, his choice of language expression (including his refusal of language—silence), his sexual expression, and self-production, seeking for the long-desired ultimate freedom for the self. In addition to the triadic attributes of space (space-time-energy), Lefebvre goes on to view the production of space from three different aspects, namely, spatial activities (perceived space), representation of space (conceived space), and representational space (lived space). To observe the change of influence of energy and response to the change, the ancient Chinese spatial philosophy of I Ching is introduced for specific situational analysis. A dragon represents the drive force of life exceeding the proper limits, and there will be occasions for repentance.Chapter Two draws on Foucault's theory of heterotopia to treat the two old counts as heterotopic spaces of human life. With the help of Lacan's"mirror image", we see the young characters treat the two old counts as their mirrors of identity. Focus is directed to the ages, money, titles, physical injuries and humiliations to see how the young view their own blasphemous ugliness and learn to resign to it. By means of discussion of religious feeling, we can see that to the old, religion serves only as the placebo effect. Therefore, they can manage to live happily without any absolute space—the institutional religion. Greffi offers Frederic a mirror of"living without thinking"even before the immediate death. Viewed from outside, old age can be treated as a predicament that can be illustrated by Kun 47th hexagram of I Ching; that any movement incurs repentance of which requires wisdom to get out.Chapter Three deals with two of Hemingway's wartime senior characters related to utopic spaces. Politics, killing, death, sacrifice, and religion are chosen for discussion of the old men's attitudes toward lower lives and their enemies. With the help of the analysis of the symbolic meaning of the bridges, Xian 31st hexagram is used to interpret the two old characters who apply their"hearts"to the animals and a Republic of all the citizens, they are struggling in their awareness of and care for other life. However, the conceived space alone can be very dangerous, with language as its main carrier; the subject may easily feel misled if he is not correctly guided by practice in the lived space. Chapter Four investigates the eighty-year-old nameless patron who pays daily visits to a café. The symbolic meaning of a modern caféis interpreted as the epitome of urbanized life from the spatial perspective. With analysis of the shadow of the leaves, the darkness of night, difference between a"home"and a café, prey of language autonomy, we can come to the conclusion that all the three characters in the cafémake a complementary whole, with homogenous affinities and irreconcilable conflicts. The old man lives in a representational space, which can be illustrated by the MingYi 36th hexagram because the story is set against the background of the boundless dark of the ground and the bright electric light, forming an image of an illuminating fire over the dark earth. Its Topmost Six suggests the ending should be that one will go back into the earth relating to dust and death.Chapter Five chooses to focus on Santiago in Old Man and the Sea. Attention is paid to his organs like his"left hand","right hand","eyes", etc. He chooses to mistreat his body in a religious fasting style. He is making himself a body without organs. Santiago in his old age is called"the old man"that is different from Santiago the Champion in his adulthood. The narrator chooses to list what the old man does"not"dream of, implying the related losses of life in old age and that the old man resigns himself to a state of life without any human desire or greed. His hate of"killing", his language, and his loneliness are analyzed to see that when he wants to pray, his language serves his religious purpose. The old man accepts old age as the result of a new personal understanding, the representation of a conceived space.The final part briefly summarizes how Hemingway has undergone a process of narrative changes in his treatment of old age all through his writing career. And we can clearly detect Hemingway's strong and genuine religious bent in his works. The absolute space of religion is conceived as the instrument by which God is omnipresent in the world and embraces all things in His immanent activity. A human individual synchronically lives at three levels of spaces—perceived space of gestures of the body with spatial practice, conceived space of the abstract beliefs, notions and conventions with condensed energy, forces and powers for the representations of space, and the lived space where the individual enjoys the meaning and significance of being a man in the representational space. The quality of this lived space depends on the final performance of the subjectivityinvolved in the attitude toward the fulfillment of the plan, ideas of the self. Old age is atime when one may start to seek true freedom for the self, to live in a way of a bodywithout the interventions of the organ, and to enjoy the poetic dwelling.