A critical analysis of Ethnic Attitudes in Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was a kind of person who sought this world differently. His area of interest was very vast. He always believed in realism and his sense of realism always attracted him to visit several places. This is one of the reasons that he visited many battlefields in Spain, France and Italy. He was fascinated with sports like bull fight which was common in countries like Spain. He also visited Gulf Stream to quench his passion for fishing.  He also went to green hills of Africa to witness Gods plenty in form of flora and fauna. He loved watching wild animals. He loved communicating people from different culture and creed. He was also a war correspondent and he enjoyed this designation by meeting different people. In his novels and works we can find several locations and this is also correct that his plot and setting was unique. He was a source of inspiration for many writers. His characters are so real that it seems they are drawn from diverse ethnic sources. It is only because of his art of characterization that his works present a rich ethnic mosaic. Hemingway was acquainted well with Ojibway Indians. There are numerous references of them in his novels and works of nonfiction.  In The Torrents of Spring we can find detailed description of such characters. They mark their presence in his juvenile stories like “Judgment of Manitou” and “Sepi Jingan”. These stories were published in Tabula which was his school magazine in 1916. In stories like “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife”, “Ten Indians”, “Indian Camp” minor roles have been assigned to Indians. The American Indians are neither noble nor savages in the works of Hemingway. They are equally as human as individuals of other ethnic groups. Blacks are fewer in comparison to Red Indians in the works of Hemingway. They have also been assigned minor roles by the author. In “The Killers”, Sam the cook wants to restore peace. It is interesting to find that Black characters are negligible in the novels of Hemingway. In a couple of novels we can find some Negroes but they have not been assigned any major roles by the author in the novel. Burning and hanging of a Negro in Ohio has been narrated by Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was because of drunkenness which was witnessed by Jordan. At that time Jordan was a boy of only seven. Pilar and Maria reacted differently at this incident. Their expression was full with shock and horror. Robert Jordan was insensitive to such incidents because it might be common in his country. Hemingway is a kind of author who often use pejorative terms for describing people of different ethnic origins. It becomes clearer when he uses ‘niggers’ for blacks and ‘kikes’ for Jews. He uses ‘krauts’ for Germans and ‘wops’ for Hungarians. His preferences and prejudices are indicated in interactions of different characters of diverse ethnic backgrounds.