English questions part 2

Activity 4.3 - Hemingway and the Epicureans

Hemingway's tale—most of his writing, really—is reminiscent of Epicurus' philosophy.

The Epicureans argue that man can only be happy if he eliminates his most profound fears: death and the possibility of an afterlife where God punishes and rewards. If we could eliminate these two fears, we could be happy. Epicurus said that death is nothing to be afraid of because where death is we are not. You go to sleep, and you don't dream. And he's right, that doesn't sound too awful—if Epicurus is right, that is.... Shakespeare's Hamlet decides not to kill himself for this very reason. But he's ambivalent because, as he says, "...To sleep: perchance to dream: Aye, there's the rub." What if Epicurus is wrong? What if consciousness continues?

Nada or Nothingness that preoccupies Hemingway is also the preoccupation of the Existentialists who say that we all must face the facts of our life for what it is and not pretend, hope, and fantasize that it's something different than it is. Albert Camus, the French existentialist, argues that our lives are no different than Sisyphus's, condemned to push a rock to the top of the hill where it inevitably falls to the bottom. Our lives are as pointless, filled with suffering and brief moments of joy that mean nothing. One can try to escape this existential crisis by burying oneself in work and consumption. Ivan Ilych, recall, tried to do exactly that.

However, if you've lost the distractions that take one's mind away from Nada—wife, career, children, etc.—what can help to some extent, Hemingway concludes, is to find a clean, well-lighted place that allows a temporary escape. The same theme appears in what is perhaps Hemingway's most famous novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926), where the protagonists desperately pursue epicurean pleasures to escape the Void.