CHAPTER 2

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Introduction

Until currently, people recognize modernism as an era of tolerance and open

mind. They react differently towards differences among them. They no longer entitle

I Afro-American as lowbom people and began to accept them as fellow human being as

I welt as their works. They don't respond extremely to disagreements anymore and try to : , . . ,

1 accept other people's opinion. ~eo~le:.have W e d to appreciate human uniqueness and

1 develop new acceptance for what considered bizarre in previous time.

i , , .. In the middle of the new developmentof mind, philosophers realized the change

i and began to donate their intellectuality for the change. They gave positive reaction to

the tendency and put emphasis on the new perception of human existence. Hence, they

I I gave birth to a new philosophical view named exrstenfialism. The view did not only

affirm the new way of thinking of human in the era but also stroke the low perception

upon human being during the First and the Second World War.

Regarding the issue, in following pages there will be explanations on the

background of the emergence of modemism and the character of literature pieces

produced in the era, especially by James Joyce whose work made a good example of it.

Then, it will be continued on the topic of existentialism with the emphasis on one of the

most influential philosophers of the movement, Jean-Paul Sartre.

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2.2 Modernism

When regarded as an era of tolerance, this era emerged more than just tolerance

in the people of the time. It also emerged creativity, open mind, and wiser acceptance

upon different things, not to mention better appreciation for human lives.

2.2.1 The Age of Anxiety

War is a petrifying experience, colored with massive destruction and massacre.

Thus, when the World War I finally came to an end, people were hoping to live in peace . . - ,

again. The thought was that after-the kdr,"'life would be peaceful again, and people

would once again living their normal life, stop the destruction and suffering, able to do , . -.

their job and practice their traditional value of life. Yet, after experiencing the war, in

general, the horror and the unstable condition lasted and could not be easily eradicated.

This made what was hoped to be once more normal rather impossible.

Then, came the era of the Great Depression where cost was high because of the

inflation, causing people to live in poverty and having developing urban problems, such

as over-crowding, the increasing daily crime, and temble working condition. The

already bad condition was made even worse by these matters. People grew pessimist,

uncertain whether to believe the prior life's stability, rapid development of the country,

and the well-established education were for real. They worried over the destruction

which had occurred, had destroyed their faith upon human's grace, since the destruction

was led by human itself. Doubt and anxiety drew a significant crisis over the 2 0 ~

century intellectually (McKay, A History of Western Sociery, 1987, p.896).

The intellectual crisis was clearly reflected in philosophy in two major

distinctions. In the English speaking countries, the main stream was logical empiricism. *,

While in other continental countries, it was existentialism which became the primary

philosophical movement (ibid, p.900). On the one hand, logical empiricism refused to

accept old believes which was well worn in the Westem civilization before the War, and

on the other, existentialism tried to confirm the significance of human in the chaotic

world. For better view, logical empiricism rejected the existence of God, the philosophy

of happiness, traditional distinction of good moral values, and the old aim of human

freedom.

By this remark, the literature in the 20" centuy was greatly influenced and

derived. Writers altered their writing Q1e;psd more expressive words in their diction, ,-

and aimed new point of view to elaborate certain matter. Some other novelists,

considered to be the more serious ones, usedstream-of-consciousness technique to

explore the psyche (ibid, p.902). A technique which emphasizes on how one sees rather

than what one sees. As the technique altered, they also changed their concern. They paid

more attention to individual subject matter and refused to accept the idea of progress,

with extreme description as "anti-utopias", frightened visions of future happenings (ibid,

p.903). Further, the discussion will be divided in two distinctions, literary movement in

modem time and the philosophy of existentialism.

2.2.2 Modern Literature

Modern literature, as described briefly in the previous discussion, used different

style from previous period. In the 1 9 ~ centuy, authors tended to use clearer description

to deliver moral messages, though, modem writers preferred the more subtle way. They

rejected fundamental literary forms and used random plot with no chronology in time, ..

limited p i n t of view, and performed more experiment in literary forms. The

experiments resulted in new form of art, including in music, painting, and architecture,

such as: Dadaism, S,urrealism Impressionism, and Futurism.

As mentioned above, writers that were influenced by this progressing movement

tended to leave traditional themes. If before, writers elaborated social themes, writers of

this era preferred to extend individual life and psychological phenomen to utter urban

problems, political matters, or other important issues like race discrimination, gap

between social classes, and so forth. The use of sheer impressionism and subjectivity

away from what was once fixed narrative point of view and distinctive moral values was

done to break the traditionality in';litk;ary.work. ,.. , Modem writers also considered

simplicity or asceticism highly important. This attitude suited the mood of the period . , -.

which was to eliminate the things considered aS a distinctive values, e.g.: a drama should

last for at least an hour, performed on stage with decorative settings; poem should have

lots of lines, rhyme, and certain form (stanza, sonnet, etc); novel should have omniscient

external point of view and deliver clear-cut moral values. These old rules were broken

by the simple forms practiced by the writers. Short and unrhymed poems, short plays,

one-person limited point of view are few instances of the practice of asceticism (Bany,

The Beginning Theory An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, 1995, pp.81-

85).

Beside writers, modem literature was also thickened by critics with their

contributions to literary world. Amazing literary thinkers from east to west estimated

critical thoughts upon ideas and invented fresh ones. Benjamin, Walter, with his stylistic

move between prose, fragment, aphorism and citation; Blanchot, Maurice, with his

irreducible and indeterminate literary object, Joyce, James, with his unhomely modem

experience, are a few example of the series of the vast modem thought camed all over

the wodd (Lechte, F$l Key Contemporary Thinkers, 1995, pp.203-213).

One of the influential critics acquainted to Hemingway was James Joyce. He was

bom in Dublin in 1882. He graduated from Dublin University College in 1902. Then,

Joyce left Dublin to study medicine a Sorbonne, Paris. In 1904, Joyce became an

eminent writer because of his novel Ulysses (ibid, p.212). The novel expressed much of

the history of Dublin and the history of English literature (ibid, p.213). When recalling

on Baudelaire's term, the novel gave a real modem experience focus on consciousness. ,

It distilled an open discourse to new &@&I$XI, . . temporality, and relativity in contrast to

the repeating of the familiar values (ibid, p.213). In (nysses, there was a lot of , , .

coincidence of meeting, discussion, dance, ehy-going here today and gone tomorrow

type of character, and "night loafers" (ibid, p.213). In these circumstances, Joyce

addressed in them a series of possibilities. He urged the importance of "here and now",

the spontaneity of an event and the chance that made it possible (ibid, p.214).

For Joyce, words are very important. They stand autonomously in his writings.

And style has become a major issue in his writing. He uttered that style could be the

answer of how an author could include modem thoughts without being stiff or artificial.

He mocked the logic of causality by not providing reasons for an action. By addressing

Ulysses the "story" of the day, he highlighted spontaneity of actions and coincidences,

not merely action done supposedly.

2.3 Philosophical Movement of Existentialism

Began in Euwpe in the mid of the two Great War, the philosophical movement of

existentialism went fonvard and influenced the world. The movement of this philosophy

was carried by several admiring philosophers, one of whom was Sartre.

Born in French, 1905, he was one of the most important intellectuals that had

helped moving the culture of modernism in Europe. His thought of a free society was

revolutionary and his philosophical and literary writings presented his ontological and

existential thought. And these existential concerns defined western existence upon their

anxious world after the Destructive ~&t%ens, Filsafat Barat (jilid 2), 1981, p. 162).

Between the two Great Wars, existentialists were actually searching for moral . , .

values in the world of terror and doubt. The well-known French philosopher, Jean-Paul

Sartre (1905-1980), established thc thought that human beings simply exist: "They turn

up, appear on the scene (etre en soi)". Then, they were condemned to be free and to use

it to state themselves. Freedom was considered a condemnation because at the time,

people already used to rules established by the authority, though with descending faith.

They had been used to patterning life and distinctive values, so having freedom meant

having the power to decide what best while being in a great confusion of right and

wrong because of the war horror. Somehow, the power to make their own decision

seemed rather frightening because the ability had been disabled by the horror of the war.

Meanwhile, most of the existential thinkers were atheist. These atheist thinkers thought

that human being was actually solitary because there are no supreme being to help them

when they were haunted by their own despair and the meaningless life they encountered.

This problematic thought expressed clearly the crisis of modem intellectuals (McKay,

1987, p. 901).

Further, Sartre realized the importance of human action. When Sartre addressed

that human, unless they were dead, must act (etre-pour-soi), since action is somewhat a

measure of human existence, and use their freedom. Freedom, for Sartre, is absolute. It

is a negative consciousness. When humans make their choice consciously, they reject

other thing besides the thing they have chosen. They are free to reject things they choose

to reject. The rejection is defined as negative action. This freedom was reflected in their

anxiety, because anxiety concerns with one's own self as well as freedom to prove one's

existence. In order to prove their existence, they have to make options, which in turn

will give meaning to their life. The mtani~gfulness of life and the part one could serve , , , . ,. ._

in hidher own life as well as others' will later be the headline of existentialism. Then,

people would have to be consistent, courageous, and aware of their behavior to

eventually overcome the bitterness of the current period (op. cit, pp.157-160),

When referring to relationship amongst human, Sartre described it as a group of

conflicts. When a conscious mind of a human being chooses an option, it beholds its

subjectivity and makes other's options as objects. Meanwhile, other consciousness does

the same, thus, creating conflicts (ibid, p.163). This subject-object matter produces

submissiveness toward the superior one, yet, it alters continuously as human continues

hisher social life. The shift provides continuous conflict and made the positions always

interchangeable.

The means to interchange the positions is eye-gaze (in French: le regard)

(Hariyadi, Membina Hubungan Antar Pribadi Berdasarkan Prinsip Partisipasi.

Persekutuan, dun Cinta Menurut Gabriel Marcel, 1994, p. 128). By looking at something

or someone, we make it an object of ours. We can impose our existence upon it by

making it a continuous object. The limit of our eye-gaze will be the limit of our world,

because what we don't see is not a part of our existence.

Following is a case study: I am a waiter. I wake up every morning seeing nobody

else beside my sister in my room. I live with my little sister in a dormitory house near a

restaurant where I work. When I go to work, I like to watch how people crowd in the

pavement, hurrying to the underground metro. I serve dozens of costumers everyday. I

usually ., have dinner with fellow waiters at the restaurant's kitchen after working hour.

Then, my sister would come to pick me up and we go home together.

The waiter serves hisher e i i ~ t d e l i ~ . i t e d l ~ ; *. . either in elre en soi or etre pour ~.

soi. Shehe has few people to be included in hidher eye object. First is hisher little

sister, then the crowding people, the costutners, and finally fellow waiters at the

restaurant. The conflict of hidher eye-gaze occurs when the sister also makes himiher an

object of her eye. So do the crowding people, the costumers, and the fellow waiters. The

waiter used hisiher freedom to be a waiter, neglecting other job, to look at the crowding

people instead of glancing to the underground metro, to serve dozens of costumers

instead of being lazy and serve only a few, and to have dinner with hisher fellow

waiters instead of hisiher sister or other friend.

The waiter has used his1 her freedom to make decisions and give himiherself a

life of a waiter who has limited social life, since sheihe only meets limited people and do

limited job. The waiter actually has hisher freedom to do another job or to have two

jobs at the same time, to meet and get to know more people than she has already does,

and to life in other place. Shehe can always decide to move to another dormitory, to quit

being a waiter, even to move to other town and live with other people than hisher sister.

The freedom to do or to reject an option leads the waiter's existence to a state shehe has

decided. For himselfiherself, in hisiher etre en soi, sheihe exists as a person and a waiter,

and for others, for hisiher etrepour soi, sheihe exists as a waiter and a sibling for hidher

sister.

In general, the characteristics of existentialism are individual uniqueness,

freedom, and method of phenomenology. The first term stands for the originality of

human being, the differences between one person and the other which make the person

unique. The second term, freedom, becomes an inevitable means for human being to

exist. Only by using hidher freedom, one could make choices to state hidherself, to state

hisiher existence. And the last one, the rne$od40f phenomenology, is the method used to

analyze the existence of the being by using what is performed by the phenomena.

2.4 Hemingway in the Frame of Modernism and Existentialism

Hemingway was a writer born in Oak Park Illinois, July 21, 1899, who led an

amazing life for almost 62 years of his life. Having married to four wives and having

three sons, Hemingway had been to many countries in pursue of true adventures for his

fondness of hunting, fishing and sports.

Young Hemingway was a brave young man. He volunteered to be a soldier in the

First World War. But he was rejected because of his poor vision. Then, he tried once

again as an ambulance driver. He was sent to Italy to serve in the Red Cross Ambulance

Corps for one year. There, he was involved in the First World War and rescued a soldier

with the sacrifice of his leg, which was wounded badly by the explosion of a mortar

shell (McQuade, The Harper Single Volume American Literature (Third Edition), 1999,

p.2214).

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Beside bravery, young Hemingway was also very bright. He learnt to develop a

writing style that bould make him famous when he worked as young reporter in the

Kansas City Star. His sentences were short and tight, giving packed narration in his

stories. He. stressed on clarity and immediacy to attract reader's attention and then drive

it throughout the story with active verbs, to sustain the feeling as if they are experiencing

the story themselves. He always thought that stories, even fiction, should carry the truth

as much as they could (Ryan, Major 2dh Century Writers, A Selection of Skerchesfrom

Contemporaly Authors, 1991, p. 1375); _ _ , .. , . , . . . , i' ,.'

In 1921, Hemingway IefYfor ~ k i with his first wife. There, he made a collection

of acquaintances and friends, which was extraordinary for a young western writer. He , , .

met some of the most important writers of 20" century namely Gertrude Stein, Ezra

Pound, John Dos Passos, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, with the help of

Sherwood Anderson. His life in Europe had directed him to his typical theme in writing,

in which violence and its consequences were bestowed in his fancy for hunting, fishing

and bullfighting (op. cit, p.2215).

Later on, in his middle age, Hemingway went to Africa on a safari. Then, he

came back to Europe before he bought a house in Key West, Florida. He lived there with

his second wife. In his time in the State, he developed his deep interest in fishing and

sailing. After few year stay in Florida, Hemingway headed back to Europe to work on a

documentary film. And married for the third time, he moved to Cuba in 1940 (op. cit,

p.2216).

His journey to Italy, Spain, France, Africa, Idaho, Florida and Cuba gave

Hemingway an opportunity to experience varied life as an ambulance driver in war, a

war correspondent, a hunter, a fisherman, a writer, a celebrity, a bullfighter, and a father.

Not to mention as a husband to four different women. Yet, his philosophy of life

remained still in human existence upon trial and pressure, which he often described in

physical confrontation. He created heroes in his novels. Young, brave and undefeated

I are typical traits of his heroes, though, once he created a hero in form of an old

fisherman

In The Sun Also Rises, he pictured hard-living expam'ates in Paris, while in A

Farewell to Arms, he told about an American ambulance driver who was seriously

wounded in the war in Italy and fell in love with a nurse, in reference to his own

experience as an ambulance driver-tn~X&(y,, Then, in To Have and To Have Not, he ,..,

\ . .. . ,.<,

created a hard-bitten, pragmatic hero who dealt with smuggling. For Whom The Bell

Tolls was about an American scholar who grouped himself with peasant guerillas and

bravely sacrificed himself. The Old Man and The Sea was a story of a strong old

fisherman who caught a giant marlin alone (op.cit, p.2217).

There was always success in Hemingway's stories, though colored with

suffering. Success in holding pride, in catching something great, in winning someone's

heart, in maintaining one's pride, or even in dealing with one's own life, though not

without profound struggle. Hemingway created not only character in his novels, but also

living people. He thought that character could not maintain a story as a genuine entity,

because character could not live up the story (Perkins, Theov of The American Novel,

1970, p.352). Thus, he made his hero have strong endurance, man who bear his wounds

and uphold his pride though not necessarily a winner.

Beside his unique writing style, Hemingway was also known for his action and

acquaintances. Having a good sum of contribution toward literary world, Hemingway

was a critical thinker. He lived in time of modernism where consciousness was the basic

reason for human action. He experienced lots of war, by getting involved personally or

indirectly as a ccwering reporter, to know how important human lives are. These gave

him a chance to support his inestrainable nature with thoughts of modem times:

spontaneity. freedom, and differences. He carried these thoughts not only in his actions

but also in his writings and in his social life. He didn't provide reasons for his theme in

his'works, only truth - "Write the truest sentence that you know" (op. cit, p. 1375). He

gathered with James Joyce, whose Cnysses was extremely wonderful in Hemingway's

opinion, Gertrude Stein, actors, actresses, matadors, fighters, politicians, and celebrities. I

. , , . . . . . . , ,s . Furthermore, his life in Europe (ed+cially-.:n Paris and Cuba) had provided him an

opportunity to be influenced by the vast-developing philosophical movement, , .

existentialism, which had become a major movement after World War I.

Hemingway's life and works, as well as his body, were a map of modem

thoughts and its impact carried through the change and development in the world. He

was likely a monument of rapid progress in the 20" century, just like other great men

and women recognized until generations after.