Hemingway portraits all his American characters as physically defective people, but their physical defectiveness is the reflection of their inner emptiness. The “Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” is based on the idea of imitation the ideal life set by the society in 1920s in US. All main Hemingway’s characters are filled with fear, unlike Emerson’s idea that your life is not an apology and you shouldn’t have fear in your heart. Achieving happiness is not living in American dream and following the idols, such as money. Happiness can only be reached at the stage absolutely free of fear.
Macomber has fear all his life, fear of not following generally accepted rules and being judged for that. He has an unhappy marriage, which supposedly fits in the idea of the American dream. The couple as a result of unhappiness and emptiness tries to medicate its pain with alcohol. But the real way out of the situation should be sincere inner discussion and setting the actual real goals and values in the life, not simply following the accepted and common model. A person can only be happy when he lives in harmony with his soul. When Macomber finally frees of fear he dies; but he dies as a happy and free person. I believe the death took place to emphasize that the main goal of the person is to find the inner harmony. When the person achieves the inner peace all other physical aspects no longer matter, and death becomes a symbol of the end of the successful inner search.
In the story “Soldier’s Home” the theme of the idol, American dream, is again portrayed by Hemingway. The society believes that everyone has to work, go to church and fit in the other conservative Midwest’s stereotypes. But what the society doesn’t realize is that there are some other things besides the physical world. Krebs just came back from the war; he is emotionally tired and damaged and is in the stage of alienation. He lives in the past and is afraid to step forward. Harold’s family doesn’t realize and ignores the terrible things their son had to go through. They want him to work and to be socially active. They want him to live an American dream life. Krebs’ mother is concerned with his potential sinful relationships with women, and prays for that not to take place. However, she doesn’t find the war and the fact that her son was killing other people terrible at all. She sees the world from her naïve and one sided perspective. She has idols, which she wants her son to follow. But he can’t. As he has seen the other side of life, the real one, with pain and fear. Krebs’ family fails to help him. America of 20th century was all about it, full of idols and in denial of the real world and negative sides of life.
In “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” Hemingway discusses Christianity. Wilcox is a Christian; however, he doesn’t listen to his inner voice and just follows his guide. His faith seems to be working the same way-he follows the rules, yet doesn’t realize what it truly means to be Christian and to have faith. Religion is the American idol. The way some people experienced the religion at that time was quite wrong. When a boy in the story has a problem, he as in book of Mathew, tries to get rid of the part that was causing him problems. However, not always people should take the bible literally.
Sometimes we just need to change our perception, and not literally change ourselves. As the problem always is inside of our minds, and it is our responsibility to define it and solve it in order to achieve inner happiness and peace. The boy dies, as he was treated by the doctor, who had the right origins and fit in the idea of what the doctor should be, but didn’t have the knowledge. The doctor who could actually be saving people’s life was a Jew, and it was unacceptable in the society. Again, the author describes the conflict of the set up idols and provides the visualization of their fall.
In “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” the idea of church is discussed. People are simply praying for the wrong things. The wrong values are set by society. They really need to look inside themselves and try to identify what really matters.
The fallen idols of the American society can be seen greatly throughout the whole novel “The Great Gatsby”. Gatsby thought he loved Daisy and wanted to reestablish their former feelings. But it wasn’t possible as her and his inner selves have been corrupted by the idea of American dream, which progressed into simple greed for money in 1920s. Gatsby became rich very fast, he experienced the “American dream”, in terms of monetary success. However, he got so involved in the whole idea of wealth and power, that he misinterpreted and confused the need for the fulfillness of the dream with the true love. Gatsby didn’t truly love Daisy. For him she was a princess he needed to have to fully represent the “American dream” idea. He established idles in his life, false idles and as a result he never was happy and satisfied. As the person simply can’t be happy when having money and other physical values only. Gatsby possessed all the riches but still was a very unhappy person. He had it all, but his heart was empty. He achieved everything the society promised him he needed to be happy, but it didn’t work out; his idols turned to be false, and not more than an imaginary factors and indicators of happiness. The most effective way to portrait the emptiness and the actual meaningless of the idea of the American dream was to describe the Gatsby’s funeral. His “friends” didn’t come to his funeral. It was the crucial point of the depicting the fallen idol of the American society in 20s century.
Another aspect of the American life is Christianity. In the 20th century Christianity started losing its initial form and was differentiated according to the new understanding of life and new goals of people, new interpretation of the American dream. People started faking the ideal model of Christian life. In “Miss Lonelyhearts” people’s perception of religion is being discussed in an ironic way. People gave the authority to Miss Lonelyhearts to advise them on spiritual decisions in their life. Miss Lonelyhearts tries to give them biblical and Christian advises. He is viewing himself as the Christ. The irony in my opinion is that at the same time he is not able to truly understand people’s problems and doesn’t follow the Gods law himself. He doesn’t have the true spiritual base to base his life on. He wants to help people but it is him who needs help in the first place. He needs to learn to love, the main principle of Christianity. In the end of the book, Miss Lonelyhearts finally discovers the spiritual part in him, but the society couldn’t accept it and couldn’t believe in it. So he gets shot by the Doyle, whom he was trying to help. The American dream society can’t accept and believe in Miss Lonelyheart’s Christian idea of love, as the society has been spoiled by the new values in possibilities of 20th century.
The person needs to find happiness within himself, as none of the external factors can make us happy. Many people nowadays are still trying to find happiness in the material world, but they never will. Material is temporary, whereas the soul is eternal. The only way to be free and to live in peace is to achieve the true harmony, which can only be possible through the self reliance.
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