Ernest Hemingway'in A Farewell to Arms ve For Whom the Bell Tolls'daki erkeklik testi

The present study discusses the masculine identity of two main characters, Frederic Henry and Robert Jordan, in Ernest Hemingway's two novels. Henry is the main character in A Farewell to Arms, and Jordan is the main one in For Whom the Bell Tolls. In the past, literary critics had identified Hemingway's main male characters as individuals that demonstrate tough masculine traits. In contrast to the previous critics' views, I argue that Hemingway's central male characters, namely Henry and Jordan are in struggle with regard to their masculine social positions and they are hardly able to prove their masculinity. In marked contrast to the previous emphases on biographical readings and psychoanalytical analyses of the novels, this study pays careful attention to the construction of the masculine identity. My discussion of the subject is based on the social construction of manhood. This involves examining the motives that lead Henry and Jordan to participate in the First World War and in the Spanish Civil War. Although there are several similarities between Henry and Jordan, they differ from each other in particular aspects. Henry has no way except rebuilding his masculine identity by joining the war. However, he soon finds out that being involved in the war is not a way to assert his masculine identity. In other words, the war leaves him disenchanted with his search for manhood. Consequently, he is overwhelmed by his disenchantment with his desperate attempts to rebuild his masculine identity as he is eventually unable to find happiness by asserting his manhood neither in the battlefield nor in family life. He becomes distraught and desperate due to the death of his lover Catherine and her stillborn child. On the other hand, Jordan makes up his mind to stay in battlefield and keep on fighting to protect his friends and his lover Maria despite the fact that his ideals are being compromised. In doing so, Jordan hardly manages to find satisfaction and gain victory in showing his manhood in this manner. Jordan is prevailed over with a sense of loss to the utmost degree. While the war is a means to uncover the treasure of manhood, Henry fails in his attempts to prove his manhood. Yet, Jordan succeeds to a certain degree through being committed to his ideals and principles which he initially has left America for.