Hemingway and McLain, A Critical Study Research Paper

Hemingway and McLain, A Critical Study - Research Paper Example The story unfolds as the flamboyant Brett and unfortunate Jakes journey from the wild nights in Paris to bullfighting rings of Spain with a miscellaneous group of expatriates. It defines the postwar age of moral bankruptcy, unrealized love, spiritual dissolution and vanishing illusions (Timeless Hemingway 1) ‘The Paris Wife’ by Paul McLain was published in 2011. The novel is a biographical fiction about Hemmingway’s first marriage to his wife Hadley. The author explores the time periods, cultures and the prominent artistic neighborhood that the couple lived in and how Hemmingway became a good writer (McLain 3). A Critical Study The two novels are connected in many ways. First Hemmingway in his novel revolves around characters Jake Barnes and his expatriate friends in Paris. They occasionally work but spend a lot of time partying, drinking and arguing. The author uses Jakes Perspective to bring out the cast of other characters in the story. Lady Brett Ashley is bro ught out as exciting, beautiful and unpredictable British divorcee. Another important character is Robert Cohn who weak, unlucky and even is unsuccessful as a writer (Boon, 18). McLean on the other hand views Hemmingway through Hadley’s eyes. The story opens in Paris before an extended flashback where Hadley recalls her early days in St. Louis, how she met Hemingway and their short courtship. The author shows their life in Paris from the humble beginning in the garret apartment to the notorious trip to Lausanne during which Hadley lost all of Hemmingway’s drafts of three years. Other trips that inspired Hemingway’s ‘The Sun also Rises’ include the Paris races, Skiing in Austria and bullfighting in Pamplona (Boon 19). The time frame in the two stories is similar where both are set in the post world war 1 period. The two novels depict an era of open relationships or marriages. In ‘The sun also rises’, McLain shows male artists Fond, Pound and eventually Hemmingway taking their mistresses to the same home as their wife. In Hemingway’s novel, Brett is separated from her husband and waiting divorce. She has affairs with a number of men but she does not want to commit to a relationship with any of them. Even though she loves Jake she is unwilling to give up sex in order to commit to him (Wagner 31). The two novels depict the aimlessness of the lost generation. The men and women who faced the war became psychologically and morally lost. In Hemmingway’s novel, Jake, Brett and their friends no longer believe in anything. Their lives are empty and the consequences are drinking, escapist activities such as dancing and debauchery. McLain brings out Hemingway and his friends lives to be similar. She refers to them as the fabled ‘lost generation’ that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Despite the love that he shared with his wife, Hemingway grows costly and this be comes more challenging to Hadley (Burke 26). The characters are connected in a way. Hemingway uses Jake to show the effects of a young man’s life after war trying to put back the pieces together. Jake is wounded after war. Although he does not say so straightforwardly, there are several suggestions in the novel that show results of his injury; he lost the ability to have sex. In many ways he appears to fit in the â€Å"lost generation† group whose experiences in the world-war 1 undermines