Life experiences helped Hemmingway in his writing. His duty during World War I in 1918 left him seriously wounded. His experiences at war helped him in his novel A Farewell To Arms (1929) He would have a total of four wives. With his first wife he moved to Paris and worked as a foreign correspondent. While in Paris he would write his first novel The Sun Also Rises (1926)
An experience as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War led him to write the book For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). During a safari in Africa he survived two plane crashes that would leave him in pain and in ill health. He would make a life in Key West Florida and Cuba before living in Ketchum Idaho where he would shoot himself in the head and died.
The passage from For Whom The Bed Tolls
“How little we know of what there is to know. I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much about life in these four days; more, I think than in all other time. I’d like to be an old man to really know. I wonder if you keep on learning or if there is only a certain amount each man can understand. I thought I knew so many things that I know nothing of. I wish there was more time.”
What a sad passage considering how he died. I think we understand or perhaps we just see things from a different perspective. Either way, I don't think we ever get too old to learn but I do wish there was more time. Though, I often think of my grandmother who lived to be 98. She went to so many funerals including her husband, 4 of her own children and at least 2 grandchildren...but by the time she died, there was not many people left to attend hers. She lost almost all of her peers and much of her family and the world must have seemed like a different universe because she was born in 1998. I'm not sure I would want that much time. Though I'm not saying I'm ready yet.
ReplyDeleteso know what you are saying. I work in a nursing home as well and have heard the seniors that live there talk about being ready to go, wondering why they have lived so long but being thankful that they have Yes it is sad how he passed
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