On The Religious Factors In Hemingway's Major Works

The Christian religion and Christian culture are deep-rooted in the western world and the Christian culture is also regarded widely as one of the two resources of the western literature. The representative work of Christian literature is the Bible. From the religious angle, the Bible is the official scripture of Judaism and Christianity. But for most of people all over the world, the value of the Bible is a significant classical literary work and a rarity for all the human beings. This great work has high artistic value and esthetic influence, it has spread so widely and has been acknowledged as a treasure in the field of world literature. Readers from generation to generation are moved by the Bible and this great work helps readers broaden their outlook and knowledge and get the marvelous artistic enjoyment. What's more, Biblical literature fosters and nurtures a lot of world-known great writers. They accept the influence of Biblical literature or show the theme of the Bible or use the esthetic thoughts in the Bible for reference so that they could create many world-known works,and all the works have the far-reaching influence on the development of world literature. If we are not familiar with Biblical literature, we will not truly understand the development of world literature. Hemingway is one of these world-known writers who are affected deeply by the Bible, his masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea which contains rich Biblical metaphors has been appreciated by the people all over the world.Growing, living and writing in the social surroundings filled with the Christian cultural atmosphere, Hemingway has countless ties with the Christian religion, which shows in his works, not only on the form but also the spirit or theme. Hemingway once talked about the important role of the Bible to his literary creation. He said that he began to learn writing from reading the Bible, especially The Old Testament.In this paper, the author will explore the following aspects:First, the religious influence on Hemingway's growing will be discussed. The Hemingway family of Oak Park were members of the First Congregational Church. Hemingway was strongly influenced by his family members on the religious beliefs when he was a child. We can conclude that the religious atmosphere, which surrounded the whole period of his childhood and youth, would brand more or less in his heart, thus it's possible that the religious influence would leave some vestiges in his works.Second, after he grew up, Hemingway's attitude towards religion shows the complicated tendency: The wedding of his first marriage was held according to the protestant rites. Later he said he changed his belief and believed in Catholicism and held the wedding of his second marriage with Pauline, a Catholic, according to the Catholic rites. He married four times in his lifetime, and every marriage disintegrated only because he couldn't be loyal to his wives consistently; in his lifetime he betrayed a lot of his close friends and some people who gave him many unselfish aids became his"enemies"finally; in most of his lifetime the relation between he and his mother was very tense, he often said he hated his mother; what's more, in some different stages of his lifetime, he said many disrespectful words about religion. But when he suffered the afflictions in his life and pinched his soul on nowhere, he longed for the consolation and redemption of religion. The reason why Hemingway's attitude towards religion is so contradictory after he grew up will be discussed tentatively by the author..Third, in the author's opinion, Hemingway's three major works The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea are all affected deeply by Biblical literature; and Hemingway uses many religious metaphors and images in these works. The author will start with digging out the religious metaphors and images in the three works, then explore the religious theme and spirit in the deep layers of the three works from the religious perspective.Finally, the author will try to analyze the process of Hemingway's spiritual exploration reflected in the works due to the influence of religion.In a long period few people have researched on Hemingway's works from the religious perspective. The significance of researching on the religious factors in Hemingway's major works lies in two points: On the one hand, we can dig out more connotations from these major works of Hemingway; On the other hand, we can understand Hemingway and his major works more deeply and fully so that the development of literary criticism will be pushed forward gradually by our efforts.