Unlike all other forms of lutte or combat the
conditions are that the winner shall take nothing;
neither his ease, nor his pleasure, nor any notion
of glory; nor, if he win far enough,
shall there be any reward within himself.The premiere of the collection Winner Take Nothing is on 27th October 1933. The title of the collection of short stories and its epigraph are made up by Hemingway himself. In a letter to his friend and editor Maxwell Perkins Hemingway writes: “The title reflects with uncompromisingly logic the truth about people, who the stories incarnate and illustrate”.
Maybe because of the transitioning hard period between the two World Wars or because Hemingway himself experiences so many tragic events in his life at this time or because of his sensibility, he presents reality as horrible and cruel in the collection. Hemingway’s view and conception of the world are gloomy and all pieces in the Winner Take Nothing have pessimistic and tragic decoration. His view of life is terrible and gloomy and often his disillusionment transfers in black mockery and satire.
The story The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio is published for the first time in the April issue from 1933 of Scribner’s Magazine under the title Give us a prescription, doctor. The story is about a nun, a gambler and a man listening radio. All of them addicted. The first title clearly shows the main motif of the story. There is needed prescription, there is needed medicine. And the medicine is opium, which makes man to forget the disastrous and senseless reality, which makes him to create his own worlds, where he forgets that he lives in nothingness – nada (A Clean, Well – Lighted Place). Opium is the escape from reality or the thing which makes man more comfortable with life, which distracts his mind from the real situation, gives sense and man can’t live without it. For Cayetano the opium is gambling, for the nun it is religion, for Mr. Frazer it is the radio, the nice melodies and the beautiful unknown worlds it brings to him every night. These people need opium to forget their strange distorted reality. Man often must drug and fog his mind in order to keep living. The reality is severe and opium is so good. Man wants to forget, to not notice that reality, where he is doomed to pain, to sufferings and to losing minute after minute.
Another story from the collection The Light of the World is a kind of grotesque. Hemingway as James Joyce and as Franz Kafka shows distorted characters like the distorted paintings of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. The title is got from the Gospel of Matthew. Interesting is the whole quotation: “You are the light of the world. A town which stays on the top of a mountain can not be hidden.” (Gospel of Matthew 5:14). The story is about beauty and the power of the human soul.
The short story is also about rudeness and it is sodden with vulgarity and bad manners. The characters on the other hand are disgusting – a cooker with white hands, who washes them with lemon which makes impression of something insane, unpleasant Indians and three big, very fat prostitutes. The atmosphere is oppressive. The ugly and abnormal characters, the rudeness and the aggression in the dialog, the nasty giggle of the prostitutes inspire disgust. The characters are dregs, rejected from society. The words are abuses and insults. The situation on this railway station is horrible and sordid.
Despite of the rudeness and despite of the repulsive picture, created by Hemingway, despite of the ugliness - inner and outer of all characters, despite of the impolite conversations - there is light. The light is the beautiful soul of one of the prostitutes longing for politeness and devoted love. She narrates about a dramatic love affair with the dead boxer Steve Ketchel. The band of rags who are waiting for the train on the station and who are listening the story also have the light in them, they are depressed from the death of the boxer and of the tragedy of the woman. Finally it appears that she never knew Steve Ketchel and the rudeness and aggression increase again in the dialogue between Alice and the Peroxide. But nevertheless the light is there, it can not be hidden. Although in ugly body, although on low intellectual and social level, although a rag - the light is there “on the top of the hill” and is “the light of the world” and will never disappear. This is the light which everybody carries in him, the beautiful dreams, the longing for love, the wish to live in a lovely world, to have tender and polite relationships, to be treated well. This light is given to men as weapon against the hard and cruel reality and is called - Faith, Hope and Love.
The light is in every human soul. The soul is gentle, believing, hoping and loving, in opposition to the rude and repulsive reality. The opposition is purposely made by Hemingway. He even makes the three prostitutes so disgusting that they weight 350 pounds each. There are two worlds in the story – one real and one imaginary of the Peroxide, one repulsive and one lovely. Hemingway aims that contrast to reveal clearly the beauty of the human soul and that even in disgusting situation in which the Peroxide is, thrown off from society and having nothing, she has inner strengths which give her power to keep living. These inner strengths are inherent to every man and thus he can continue his fight with life and fate although it is unequal. One of the main Hemingway’s motifs that “Man can be destroyed but can not be defeated.” is sodden in the undercurrent of the short story.
The Light of the World is one of Hemingway favorite stories and he wants to put it in the first place in the collection. But Maxwell Perkins dissuades him from this with the words that it will give motivation to his enemies to accuse him “about his weakness to write about rudeness in the sake of rudeness”. Hemingway steps back, although he knows he made a story, which excels Maupassant` s Madame Tellier `s Establishment.
The collection Winner Take Nothing is a higher step in Hemingway’s development. The principle of the iceberg, formulated by the writer, is presented in the collection in its higher form, touching entirely new ideas – the existential quest. “The grandeur with which the iceberg swims” – says once Hemingway – “is because of that that one eight is over the water”. Again he doesn’t say all; again he omits something, wanting to be understood by specific audience. In Winner Take Nothing the principle of the iceberg is applied with its full capacity. Every story hides so many under the water. It is shown great psychological approach, understanding of life and people and true eye. Carlos Baker, who is biographer of Hemingway, says that what lies under water is noticeable only for the discoverer, and that it is constructed under the laws of very different poetics – poetics of symbol. All short stories in the collection are symbols, which got together construct the idea of the collection mentioned in its title and epigraph.
In this third collection of short stories the ideas and the motifs are very different from other Hemingway’s works. The light motifs are deeply psychological and show the truth about people, the truth about life. Hemingway presents his existential quest, gives his answers and coins his philosophy. The iceberg swims with “grandeur” in the collection and Hemingway leaves deep trace in the literary history, and even places a request for literary immortality. The same device of symbol and the principle of the iceberg are applied in the awarded with Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 modern parable The Old Man and the Sea.
With the stories from the collection Hemingway creates exact portrait of the hopeless moments in life. The stories go beyond their time. Having no time or place, they are eternal. The entire conception of the collection is genius. But in 1933 when it is published, the literary critics in America meet the collection unexpectedly inimically. There are some very critical responses and the collection is not received well. But despite this the collection stays proudly among the works of the author, nowadays winning more and more respect. With its own unique symbols and clear messages it is part from Hemingway’s development as a writer and of the development of the modern literature.
In the modernist works of Hemingway can be seen mixed features of different literary trends. From Romanticism it is got the longing for the past, the escape in the nature and the view of man as unique person. Symbolism and Decadence can be seen in Hemingway’s pessimistic attitude towards life, man and the world, in his depiction of pain, suffering and death and in using of symbol as main literary device. Upgrading and mixing the previous traditions in literature the works of Hemingway are exact pieces of Modernism, responding to all its features and a step further and can be defined as modern allegory.
In his works Hemingway treats universal problems like human condition, the purpose of life, the position of man in the universe, the sense of human life. He often wonders in his works about the aim of man, about the winning and losing in life and who is the real winner in fact.
Hemingway’s credo “Man can be destroyed but can not be defeated.” is the very embodiment of the motif of winning, which marks all his books. In many of his works he comes to that conclusion and shows the reader proofs for that conception. It is Hemingway’s belief through all his life and all his works are written in that philosophy. He states this creed in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls and shows its manifestation in The Old Man and the Sea.
Hemingway shows that man has inner strengths, inner powers, invisible for the eye, undiscovered even by the same person but strong and forceful, which can defeat the mean and inconsistent fate. These inner strengths are the man`s weapons in the brutal fight with providence. The destiny can destroy him, but having these inner strengths he can win by accepting its strikes bravely and calmly and by trying to overcome them, saving his high spirit. And even if he can not overcome these strikes, even if he loses, he again can be a winner because he fights and has the courage to meet them. Winning is in that man doesn’t give up and doesn’t bow down his head before the difficulties in life.
Proofs for these statements can be found in the story about a hero A Way You’ll Never Be. It sends the reader to the front, where a man with shell - shock, almost psychically disordered, despite of his illness goes around the Italian frontline to help in the war against the Austrians in World War I. He doesn’t lie in a hospital where his place is but he is on the front line – fighting, forgetting himself, devoted to the cause. And Hemingway unambiguously titles the story in that way and for the first time he is so direct in his message, because only a few will volunteer in such situation to help to their army and to face death, although themselves are almost dead. This man, no matter of his condition, no matter of his suffering and agony, no matter of the bad doom, no matter of his loss keeps fighting, keeps living, keeps winning.
Important is how man fights not what he wins. The prize is that man is alive and has the ability to fight and to show what he is capable for. The winning is in that he suffers and not gives up, showing he is stronger than the pain. People are in this world to fight. The only true sense of life is this fight - all other is transient and futile. And Hemingway’s characters are fighters. Though rags and common people, they are fighters and heroes. They are small heroes having their big victories.
In A Day’s Wait is depicted heroism of one small man. The small child from the short story meets with death and one all day is waiting to die, because of misunderstanding. The child doesn’t complain but bravely and silently waits his false death. It even doesn’t say a word to his father, although it feels fear. He is waiting the death not as a coward but as a small hero. In Hemingway’s philosophy it is important not only the fight but also the way you fight, how do you meet the attacks of the malicious destiny. The child meets the death and wins the fight, because it doesn’t show any weakness. His character reveals in the face of death and that boy shows the inner strengths of a brave man, shows big heroism to which are not capable a lot of men.
Every evident defeat leads to a greater victory, because man shows his abilities to fight, his potential, and his spiritual strength to stay, even losing, in front of destiny and death and continues his battle. Defeated, man shows his real face. Will he withdraw and escape or will he keep fighting, no matter what is happening. Losing, Hemingway’s characters will continue strive against the unmerciful kicks of fate. That is their victory.
Man comes alone with nothing in this world and goes alone with nothing. The only thing he has is his life. And it is important how this life is lived. Fate is cruel and mean. It can take from man everything he has in one second and leave him alone and empty. Man must accept the strikes of providence and keep fighting, because he has nothing left, in that way he wins.
The winners will not receive anything, because there is no prize and because the fight is unequal. Man can only accept fate and keep struggling to overcome it. There is no prize; even more man receives more sufferings and pain. The important is how he accepts them. He must accept them bravely with dignity and no complaining; to live through them with grace and elegance. In that way accepts his life the old man from A Clean, Well - Lighted Place. His life is over, he has money but he doesn’t need them any more. His death is near and the waiting of it maybe makes him unhappy. He even tries to commit a suicide. In this bad position he moves with dignity.
Even the old man is chased out rudely from the café he accepts this with dignity and shows self-respect. For him the world is nada - nothingness. He and the old waiter know this – the futility and absurdity of the world. They feel it and they have insomnia. The young waiter, the barman and many other also live in the nada but they don’t know this, as the old waiter says. They don’t understand the tragedy of life, busy with petite daily problems. But the old man and the old waiter though misunderstood, though having insomnia, though realizing their unhappy fate, live with grace and dignity their common and simple life, meeting its foul plays.
Being in that position they want to see the beauty around them to feel the splendor of the world. They prefer nice well-lighted beautiful cafés, not the bodegas (dirty pubs). Seized by this nothingness, cruelty and darkness of existence, they search for the nice moments in life - a cup of coffee or a glass of brandy. The old man shows how man must accept death and the plays of fate, without fear, with pride and self-dignity. He is defeated - he will die soon, but that makes him stronger. Calm he accepts his destiny and that is his victory. The victory to give up from all that a man can have (the old man made an attempt to commit a suicide) and in that way to become invincible and winning, showing he is not afraid. He is ready to receive whatever the fate has prepared for him. Hemingway’s credos “Man can be destroyed but can not be defeated.” and “grace under pressure” are entirely sodden in the story, making it one of the best in the collection. The story is and one of James Joyce most favorite.
And if man wins in that fight he doesn’t get anything as Hemingway says in the epigraph. He goes without award, because there is no prize and the victory is - to fight knowing he will get nothing in the end. The winners are those who fight for the fight and fight fair and self-deniably. The winners are fighting even knowing they will lose, lose everything. The winner overcomes himself, thus free of everything, having only his courage and faith, he is ready to do the impossible, to sacrifice himself, even to receive greater pains but in that way he is winning, in that way he is victorious, in that way he can not be defeated. The winner despises the mean games of providence and death as Hemingway, who when writes about death is always bitterly sarcastic and satirical.
The fight with fate is unequal but it exists in the life of every man. Every man in this world is fighting and he won’t get a prize in the end. Every man is a hero and Hemingway shows this heroism of the common man with surrealistic manner and by the rules of the principle of the iceberg.
Hemingway’s stories are like moments of being, making the reader to feel he is alive, to feel he is part of something big, in which he has his small but significant function. There is only now, the instant, the enlightenment, which strikes down like lightning, leaving the reader illuminated, full of sense and awareness. Thus Hemingway’s works influence deeply and by the messages they embody live an eternal life and make their way to universality.
The motifs of death, fate, fight, wining and losing obsess Hemingway all his life and he writes about them in almost all his books. During the war - in the trenches or on the frontline - or at bullfights, where death is around, he is interested how man changes in the face of death. Hemingway likes the fair players, the true people, who don’t show off and accept their destiny with self-respect.
Often Hemingway’s characters are left hopeless and perplexed by fate, when it gets all they have. Nobody likes to lose but that are the rules of life. The man must accept losing and that he is destined to not rule his life, but to receive everything what the fate has prepared for him. The man must reconcile with his position in the universe and to live with elegance despite of the pain and unfair games of providence, despite of losing, which is inevitable and to show hardness and courage. That is Hemingway’s pessimistic philosophy and that is what he preaches in his works.
The motif of losing is not so clearly declared in the collection Winner Take Nothing. It is undercurrent line in the short stories and gives to the reader its unstated messages and unvoiced conclusions. Hemingway’s wish to omit and to leave the reader to feel himself the real story is fulfilled. As he says once, he wants to give “forth and fifth dimension” to his stories. His intention is to make them symbolic and full of meanings. The motif of losing is omitted, but it stays there under the water.
Hemingway declares in the collection that man can lose everything from security, happiness, love, dearest people or gold, to his own life, which is his last and which he will lose for sure. In the story After the Storm is presented the play of fate with the main protagonist. He has the chance to find the sink ship full of gold but after exhausting efforts lasting one all day he can not get anything from it. When he comes back later it is already robbed by the Greeks. There is irony in the story that even the birds got more than the main character. Here it is shown the power of fate – the main character finds the ship full of gold he is on the way to “win” the treasures but providence with its great power doesn’t allow this to happen. The Greeks got the gold. And he is again the ordinary rag, poor man, who fights drank in the pubs. Who can win against fate? The fight is unequal and the losing is certain.
The story is ironic but the ironic is the situation of man in the universe, his human condition. He is a living being in a world which is under the obscure laws of fate and most of the time he is assigned to lose. He is ordained even to lose his life. Nobody can win towards providence. But Hemingway, obsessed with this fight with fate, shows the reader option to defeat it and it is in the living despite of the obstacles, living despite of how many it hurts, living despite of all it will take, living despite of it.
In A Natural History of the Dead Hemingway scrutinizes the question of human life and of the miserable situation of man in the universe. Again it is ironic, sarcastic and satiric story. This repetition of the Hemingway’s attitude towards fate and death is clearly outlined. In this story he comes to the conclusion that a man’s destiny is a destiny of an animal, “most men die like animals, not men”. The story is a parody of the naturalists and shows the absence of divine concern for human sufferings. The desperate position of man in the world is shown by the last scene and the dialogue between the doctor and the lieutenant, when they quarrel about the dieing man:
“See, my poor lieutenant? We dispute about nothing. In time of war we dispute about nothing”.
Even people show coldness and inhumanity towards each other. But this is not the main motif of the short story. The light motif of the story is that the human life is not important. That human life is nothing, although it is everything a man has. That it can be taken by fate whenever. The discouraged position of man is obvious. His fight with fate lost.
Hemingway’s vision of losing can be seen and in The Sea Change and in Fathers and Sons. In the first story love runs away, because of the games of the providence, leaving man changed after his loss, altering him forever, but making him stronger. The second story is about the memories of one man of his beloved father who he has lost, but loves very much. Again it is shown the dreadful intervention of fate in the human life, taking away the man’s closest and dearest people. It is seen that man loses all his life and loses everything. For a second he can touch to happiness, but after that to check him and to test his inner power, the fate makes him the serial trick.
FAIR WIND!
VPi
:X
