1.1 Literature Review

Observed from the amount of papers concerning this issue published in recent years, an increasing number of scholars and academics are getting interested in Hemingway’s death theme. A lot of achievements have been made in these researches. They have put forward many important theories, points or views, which is very rewarding.

Due to the limited approaches, quite a few resources can be obtained. Within 10 foreign papers concerning Hemingway can be found online, only 2 of them focus on death theme. They mainly concentrate on the difference between their views towards death while less attention are paid on respective development of views and corresponding reasons. 

Regarding the research situation on Hemingway’s death theme in China, a great number of papers emerged since 1987. Most of them lay stress on Hemingway’s consciousness of death, his philosophy of death or his view of death by comparing with other distinguished writers’ in China. 

In 2004, Ou Yanghui did a research on Hemingway’s death theme by comparing with Lu Xun’s different interpretations of life and death. It was intended to distinguish the similarities and differences of death consciousness between them under different cultural background and explore their views on inpiduality, life attitude and death value by means of analogy and contrast, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis. At the end, he drew a conclusion that “We experienced both misery of living and emptiness of death by reading Lu Xun’s and Hemingway’s works. We are shocked by their strong spirit of confronting death and undertaking their fate. Their understanding of life ad death lighted the way forward for human beings.”(Ou Yanghui, 2004)

In 2009, Zheng Haiyan published Exploration on Hemingway’s Consciousness of Death in Times Literature, one of the famous journals in China, probing the meaning of consciousness of death in  Hemingway’s representing works and analyzing reasons account for the development of his consciousness of death. It tried to interpret Hemingway’s works through several angles. In her research, she found that “As a writer, Hemingway is good at describing death plot and thinks about it in a philosophical way. Fear intertwined with detachment in face of death and the coexistence of happiness and bitterness shape his consciousness, that is, death is the end of life, even the affirmation of life. The value of life lies in the fight with death for survival. Regardless of people’s social status, being alive or dead, it is the motivation and meaning of life that counts.” (Zheng Haiyan,2009:74) 

In 2010, a research on Hemingway’s death theme analyzed in the theory of Freud’s tripartite model the mind by Chang Chaoying. It focused on Nick, a character who mostly appeared in Hemingway’s short stories. From childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to manhood, Nick’s personality fit into the three stages of Freud’s theory. It serves for the fact that Hemingway’s attitude towards death changes from fear to disdain which produces a lot of inspiration for people.(Chang Chaoying,2010:103)

In 2014, Li Mei held the view that “The death themes in Hemingway’s works are explored to interpret his philosophy of death for encouraging people to fight for their fate, and never give up.” (Li Mei, 2014,10) Based on the researches been done by other professors like Wu Jinhua, Li Mei tried to discuss Hemingway’s death theme in a philosophic way which is abstract but accurate. 

1.2 Layout of the Thesis

   However, it should not be the end of research. These researches are either too general or too abstract. Researches on death theme need to be expanded. Therefore, the author of this thesis attempts to write a thesis in a wish for further understanding and exploration on the issue of the theme of death. Efforts are made on the development of Hemingway’s attitude towards death, since his attitude to death attaches great importance to understanding his works. The author of this thesis discovers that his attitude has undergone four stages: fear of death, feebleness before death, recognition of death and transcendence of death. First stage is closely related to his boyhood experience. Second stage implies that death cannot be conquered, man is rather weak, which is deeply influenced by World War I. The third stage shows the meaning of death becoming clearer to man, and he neither feels fear of nor evades from death but acknowledges it. The last stage emphasizes that man is not able to conquer death, while should not be defeated in spirit.