The Sea Change by E. Hemingway

Hemingway shows in his works the idea of “grace under pressure”, where man is putted at dead-lock by life or by fate and accepts that with dignity and succeeds with elegance to cope with the situation. Another line in his works is the motif of the silent, stoic suffering and facing of providence, including the theme of the fight of man, his winning and losing in life.

An interesting situation is presented in the short story The Sea Change. By the means of dialogue Hemingway reveals part after part the situation in the story. There is no narrator, the reader presents on the real conversation where two lovers, man and woman, are separating because of another woman. The man and the woman have no names and no faces, because this is not important. It is emphasized on the incident when a man loses his love violently and forever.

As Hemingway shows in most of his works man is doomed to lose and for a pity he often loses love which is one of the most painful losses. Losing his love the main character accepts the situation and lets the woman to go away, to go away in space and to go away from his life, although he loves her burningly. Left alone he accepts this loss with great pain and something in him changes. The change is inner, the barman doesn’t notice anything. It is the change of a person who accepts the loss and the pain changes him forever. He will never be the same man. He will be one of the men who have lost.

The character accepts the decision of fate and with dignity goes on. Losing he becomes stronger and voluntarily gives up from his love. The character perceives the unfair play of providence and despite of it keeps living, although the sense of his life is taken and he is empty and robbed. He is suffering but with pride, losing but with dignity. Neither a line on his face moves nor the other men notice his tragedy. Overcoming his self, surmounting his ego he is a winner but he doesn’t win anything – just one broken heart. The main protagonist shows how man must meet the strokes of fate, which he inevitably will receive in his life. It is important the way man will accept and overcome the sarcastic games of providence nevertheless he is losing all the time.

Hemingway’s characters are heroes in one unequal fight with fate and they will not win or receive something even if they win, because the fight is unequal. The only that is left to them is to live with grace, to be heroes, to suffer alone in silence, not complaining, meeting the strokes of life with pride.

The motifs of death and of fight with fate and life trace Hemingway’s work from the beginning, from the collection In Our Time, to the end – the masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea. The flirt or duel of Hemingway with death and fate continues all his life.

There are different pictures of characters and situations shown in Hemingway’s works but it is mainly stressed on the deep inner side of the character though this is not directly expressed. Hemingway’s books are deeply psychological, but this psychological side stays hidden under the water where is the seven eight of the iceberg. Like a member of the modernist trend he emphasizes on the inner spirituality, on the hidden inside world of the person but secretly, in his own manner, trying always to show as he said “the truth about people”.

FAIR WIND!
VPi
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