Ernest Hemingway- Anti-Semitic?

This past week in class, we had our second Literature Circle discussions about different books and their relation to gender roles; in my case it was The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. The first thing that caught my interest when reading through the book up until the fifteenth chapter is Hemingway's style. In my mind, I had held Ernest Hemingway up to be an author of epic proportions. I expected his novels to be profound with a deep meaning starting from the first couple of pages. I expected an author whose writing was so difficult to understand that it would feel like a foreign language to me. Frankly, I was intimidated to even try to read the novel, especially after my mom told me I might have to read the novel six times to even scrape the surface of understanding it. The LAST thing I expected was to find humor in the first pages of the novel. He actually seemed to be making fun of Jews and their stereotypically long noses. Robert Cohn, one of the characters in the book, was a Jew without a characteristically long nose, but the reason for this was that his nose was permanently flattened by a punch according to the book. Because this stereotype occurred in the beginning of the novel, it can be seen as merely an attempt to insert humor into the beginning of the novel. But, it is not just limited to the beginning of the novel as I learned through closely looking at the rest of the novel. The Jewish character, Robert Cohn, is repeated referred to as a "Jew" in a derogatory way, and whenever he does something wrong, it is because of his "Jewish" nature. He is clearly portrayed as an extremely different character than the rest in the novel and seems almost like an outcast. He is extremely weak, as shown when he turns green when he sees a bull fight, and is the only character not to participate in WWI, a fact that Hemingway feels is not very thing. Also, if you look at it from a gender roles perspective, he is constantly controlled by women. Whether it be his first girlfriend as presented in the book named Frances, who has him wrapped around her finger, or Brett, his later interest whose looks have enraptured Robert's mind, Robert is always chasing after the skirt tails of one women or another. All of this points to Hemingway trying to point to Robert Cohn being a weak character mainly due to his Jewish nature. This brings about the question of whether or not Hemingway is trying to portray his hate of Jews in the novel because it is accepted that Hemingway did not particularly like Jews. Granted, the early 1900s were a time when a decidedly Anti-Semitic sentiment was widely prevalent, and Hemingway could just be trying to show this through the animosity towards Jews in the novel. But, there is likely a specific reason for this. What that reason is, I don't know yet, but hopefully the end of the novel will enlighten me.

Kite Runner- Gender Roles?

Last week in class, we had our first literature circles regarding the novels we are reading. The novel that I am reading is The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, but another author caught my eye when looking over the list of authors a few weeks back. This author was Khaled Hosseini, the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns and Kite Runner. The reason he caught my eye was because I have just recently seen the movie Kite Runner and it was one of the most emotional movies I have ever seen, not just because of the events that occur in the movie, but also because the plot is likely real and has likely happened to some person before. This thought itself is extremely sad. After watching the movie and soaking in the sadness and letting it go, I had this great idea, why not look at the movie form a gender lens. I mean, some kids in class have to look A Thousand Splendid Suns, another one of Hosseini's books through a gender lens, so why not attempt to look at Kite Runner in the same perspective. There aren't very many women present in the actual movie, but figured it was worth an attempt anyways.
Although there were very few women present in the movie, the ones that were, even in death, seemed to have a big impact on the characters. Even in the beginning of the movie when Amir, the main character, complains that his father hates him because his birth resulted in the death of his mother, the importance of the mother figure is highlighted. It seems to have caused strained relations between the father and the child. Also, Amir's wife took on more of the role of a modern women because she was one. Besides this, there is much irony present in that the males in the movie take the place of women and men when looking at the movie from a traditional gender lens. The men are the providers, as they usually are in Muslim societies, and this is shown by Amir's father who works and gets money for Amir even when he is in America and has to deal with the language barrier. But, the traditional Victorian role of women as people who stay at home and watch the children and cook meals and clean the house is also taken by men. In the story, Hassan and other Hazari's who seem to be looked down upon for some reason, are the people that cook and clean the house. The relationship between Hassan and Amir also has some depth, but does not really have to do with anything about gender roles besides the deep everlasting friendship that they had even though they went their separate ways in the world. The irony might have been used by the author in order to show how weak some men were viewed in the society or to show that the society was male dominated so that even women's jobs were taken by men. Other than this, there just wasn't much else to be seen from a gender lens regarding the movie. Then again, I am looking at it with some amateur eyes, but I tried.

Sports Confession

I love sports. There is no simpler way to put it. If there ever was something to know about me, it is that I am a religious follower of almost every sport that exists, be it baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, golf, tennis, volleyball, swimming, track, bowling, hockey, and even poker. Every Saturday and Sunday, I am either at a friend’s house or at my house cooped in front of the TV watching football or basketball. Of course if I had homework, I would definitely be sitting at home working diligently to finish my ineffably important work with such quality that even a scholar in the subject would find it hard to find an error. Hopefully, that moving confession regarding my brilliant homework didn’t sound as unconvincing to you as it did to me, but if anyone believes the statement, I’m all for it. My love for sports extends almost to a fault, as it can be distracting at times when school overloads me with work. My parents call it an obsession; I call it a valuable source of entertainment and a useful and productive hobby. True, it may sometimes get in the way of my homework, but there is something about watching that team or individual on the television screen giving everything they have for the sake of a victory that invokes this deep emotion, this strong determination inside of me like nothing else can. If you think about it, sports basically personify determination and sacrifice; players have to fight through injury and the death of others while maintaining a steely perseverance, never losing sight of their goal. It is very easy to get lost in the competitiveness of any sport and lose sight of the major lessons that can be learned. Throughout my life, I have drawn inspiration from athletes that give up so much for the help of their team and achieving their goal. So, if there is anything that people need to know about me, it is that I love sports, not only for the entertainment, but also for the inspiration and lessons that can be taken from them.
Usually at school Indians, as a race are perceived as those ho study a lot and don't do much more. I would like to just throw out there the fact that most of us, like me for example, don't study very much at all, but instead have other activities that occupy our times whether it be computers, video games, or sports as it is with me. On a side note, if Joe Lee does not comment on this post, I will be very disappointed. To make this blog entry a little bit literary, I would like to comment a little bit about the Miller in the "Miller's Tale." To say he is a disgusting character does not really seem to fully capture his persona, and the fact that people like him actually exist in the world makes it even worse. The actual story he told was somewhat surprising though considering the initial image that is given. You expected a disgusting tale, yet to my eyes, the tale did not seem too disgusting. Although, to the people of that time, having a lover other than a spouse, especially in a women might have been disgusting. Those were my views on the tale at face value, or after my first skim through the story.