On The Formation Of Hemingway's Death Concept Based On Nick's Initiation In In Our Time

As the cornerstone in Hemingway's creating career,In Our Time provides the prototype for creating outstanding protagonists in Hemingway's other works.Meanwhile,the theme of death in this collection of short stories is such an important theme that no one can ignore in order to get a more thorough interpretation of Hemingway.In view of this,taking Nick in In Our Time as a research object,this thesis mainly focuses on the forming process of Hemingway's death concept from the perspective of Heidegger's concept of "being-towards-death" and Socrates' doctrine of "the immortality of soul".It tends to explore changes of Hemingway's death concept mainly based on Nick's different stages of life,appending with some other protagonists at the corresponding period with Hemingway in his other works.To be specific,this thesis is composed of introduction,conclusion and another four chapters.In the introduction part,the first part mainly introduces Hemingway's life experiences,including his growth,war experiences,traveling in Africa and life after wars.Apart from these,his other several representative works and writing style are also touched.Moreover,the introduction of In Our Time,especially eight stories about Nick,is mainly represented in brief.The first chapter is divided into two parts:one is the literature review consisting of previous researches both abroad and at home,which lays the foundation of the feasibility of this thesis;the other one is the theoretical basis of this thesis like three conditions of human's existence:Being-ahead-of-oneself,Being-already-in-(the-world)and Being-alongside(entities encountered within-the-world)given by Heidegger and Socrates' doctrine in the opposite between life and death,the separation between body and spirit,and the theory of studying dying.Chapter two contributes to Hemingway's vague apprehension of life and death in childhood.The first part chooses "Indian Camp" as the research object to explore Nick's reflection and understanding when witnessing birth and death at the same time.The second part reflects that people sometimes regard death as a way to escape sufferings in life from the interpretation of "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife".Chapter three puts emphasis on the adolescent Hemingway who displays his perplexity and puzzlement on life and death resulted from his personal experiences in society and war.Through the experiences about boredom of love and present life,the complexity in society and near-death experience in war,which are mainly presented in "The End of Something","The Three-day Below" and "The Battler",Hemingway is confused with his adolescent life as well as the meaning of living.The fourth chapter of this thesis reveals the transcendence for death in Hemingway's manhood.Like lots of other soldiers who can hardly merge themselves into the post-war society,Nick in "Cross-country Snow" and "Big Two-hearted River" chooses to turn nature for healing the war trauma,but it takes little effect.According to the spirit of "tough guy",Hemingway finally attempts to face death with detachment after struggling with it.Even though the body is destroyed,the spirit will never be defeated.The conclusion part briefly summarizes the whole process about how Hemingway's death concept changes at his different stages of life.Meanwhile,the thesis also makes a conclusion about the practical significance of death that every person should have the consciousness of death as well as the correct view of death,which means making full use of one's lifetime so as to accept the coming of death in calm.