Hemingway is an American writer who lived between 1899-1961. He had various personal struggles throughout his life. He helped out in WWI and also in the Spanish Civil War. He also had married 4 times. This had heavily influenced Hemingway's writing, but for me, it was getting a bit depressing. After I was done feeling depressed, it got a bit predictable in what I should be looking for in terms of analysis and meaning of the stories. It usually had something to do with war, PTSD, emptiness (as in missing something e.g. happiness, love, light), marital problems, or masculinity/pride/honor. Speaking of which, his attitudes toward women, countless affairs, and myopic view of what a man should be were rather annoying. This being said I actually enjoy his writing style. It is very simple in that the reading is not hard to understand, but it is challenging in that he might not always say some things straight forward. The famous "Ice burg Theory" is always at play in his stories. This is where I feel as though it is my job to analyze the story; he gives us the clues to figure out the big picture or idea. I also really enjoy the use of symbolism, which again ties in with the solving with clues and can usually be easily analyzed with the knowledge of Ernest's biography. Still, at times this is very difficult, but I can't really blame that on his writing, now, can I? Another thing is that Ernest has written so many stories, you are bound to like one of them. Of the few stories I have read so far, I have enjoyed more than not.
