Alienation:Hemingway And Consumer Culture

Hemingway is a world-famous American novelist. In 1954, Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature with his masterpiece The Old Man and The Sea. Participating in the two World Wars, he lived a legendary life. He was regarded as the representative of the "Lost Generation" and the spirit monument of America, exerting great influence on American literature as well as world literature. For a long time, critics both at home and abroad have analyzed his works from many perspectives, including the code hero in Hemingway’s novels, the iceberg principle, female consciousness, existentialism, and ecological consciousness. As far as the alienation strategy is concerned, it is widely acknowledged by scholars that Hemingway is inclined to adopt alienation as his defense strategy. And there are rich researches on the representations of his alienation. When it comes to the specific values Hemingway alienates, however, there are no sufficient studies on it. Therefore, this thesis focuses on exploring the relationship between Hemingway’s alienation strategy and consumerism. Through the interpretation of Hemingway’s rich personal experiences combined with the research of his literary texts, this thesis reveals that facing the consumer culture which is prevalent since the 1920s with the rise of industrialization and urbanization, Hemingway feels contempt for it and resorts to alienation as his defense mechanism, which will help to deepen the understanding and study of Hemingway’s creation and the author himself.This thesis can be divided into five chapters. The introduction part gives a brief introduction to Hemingway and his literary achievements, as well as reviews of Hemingway’s works both at home and abroad. At the same time, it will generalize the organization and originality of this thesis. In the body part, this thesis has a systematic analysis of the characters’ disdain of consumer culture in Hemingway’s representative work The Sun Also Rises and the famous short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", which serves as a reflection of Hemingway’s negative attitude towards the materialism and consumerism under the influence of consumer culture. Facing the more and more prevalent consumerism, Hemingway adopts alienation strategy as a form of self-protection. The second chapter briefly introduces the origin and main characteristics of consumer culture and its influence on Hemingway. The third chapter gives an interpretation of the disdain of consumer culture in Hemingway’s works. Although Jake lives a hedonistic life in Paris, he disdains the life driven by consumption from deep inside, for material consumption only serves as a way of filling his emptiness and fails to bring hims a sense of fulfillment and happiness. Likewise, although Harry lives a rich life, he disdains the rich, for consumption itself merely offers him some material comfort but no happiness. The fourth chapter focuses on the analysis of Hemingway’s defense strategy-alienation when he is faced with the overwhelming consumer culture. Through his attachment to nature, sojourn in and trips to foreign countries, and his pursuit for the challenge of will, Hemingway alienates himself from consumer culture and its symbols to get a sense of security and self-protection. The last chapter is a conclusion. This thesis believes that in some of Hemingway’s works, it is easy for us to detect his disdain of consumer culture. In the face of consumerism, Hemingway uses alienation as his defense strategy:his attachment to the serenity of Michigan and immersion in the pleasure of fishing in the embrace of nature; his sojourn in Paris and Cuba as well as his repeated trips to Spain; his choice of fighting in the First World War and the Spanish Civil War, his involvement in bullfighting and the big game hunting for the challenge of will. Through exploring the relationship between Hemingway’s alienation strategy and the modern consumer culture, this thesis contributes to deepen the research on Hemingway with a new perspective.