A flawed society is often blessed with critics who are unsatisfied and determined to change it. Earnest Hemingway: a leader of the modernism movement and the author of A Farewell To Arms was active in his fight for reform. Watching the biographical documentary has allowed me to better understand his attraction to the modernist movement through learning about events that took place earlier in his life.
As a child, Hemingway lived in a quiet, wealthy part of town. His parents valued self-expression and his mother was a musician. He was exposed to creativity at a young age. The modernists also valued self-expression and creativity; therefore its motives were familiar to Hemingway.
He also grew up in a period of significant industrial, economic, and political change, which may have triggered his teenage rebellion. Instead of attending college like his father whom he had a decent relationship with, Hemingway decided to move to Kansas and write. This caused his relationship with his unhappy father to drastically decline; however, it showed his courage to gravitate from the norm.
He later joined the Italian army as an ambulance worker which exposed him to European culture. His adoration for Europe later inspired him to move to Paris where he wrote and met people involved with the modernist movement such as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. These people admired his unique writing style and he befriended them. His exposure to them strengthened his ties to modernism, causing him to be involved in the movement as well.
Before watching the documentary, I had no idea how closely related the contributors to the modernist movement were. Now I think of the movement as more of a social trend than before because Gertrude Stein, Earnest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and Pablo Picasso all actually lived in Paris and were close friends with each other.
Also, I understand how the prominent industrial changes helped spark the movement. New inventions such as the car significantly changed the way we communicate; it became much faster to reach someone. People’s perspectives broadened and people suddenly found new ways of seeing and doing things. Specifically, the modernists saw a new way of looking at art that requires thinking about images. Watching the documentary allowed me to better understand modernism by learning about the life of Earnest Hemingway and the history of the time period.
