Hemingway: The Art vs. The Artist

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Keywords

Hemingway Alcoholism Mental Illness Suicide Hunting Toxic Masculinity Depression Paranoia Death Legacy Ernest Hemingway Patrick Hemingway schizophrenia psychosis mental health alcoholism mental health mental illness depression suicide Bimini masculinity toxic masculinity hunting big game hunting Pauline Pfeiffer Philip Percival Roosevelt expedition Teddy Roosevelt Charles Thompson Great Depression Key West Cuba Havana La Floridita Patrick Hemingway schizophrenia psychosis mental illness Pauline Pfeiffer Mary Welsh Mary Welsh Hemingway Adriana Ivancich Across the River Into the Trees electro shock therapy ECT electroconvulsive therapy A Moveable Feast Ketchum Idaho Martha Gellhorn For Whom the Bell Tolls Snows of Kilimanjaro Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber Francis Macomber Tobias Wolff public persona avatar alter ego

Subjects

Health Studies English-Language Arts History-Social Science

Grade Levels

Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12

Audience

Classroom Teacher / Educator

Related Resources

Hemingway: The Art vs. The Artist

In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to examine the connection between Hemingway’s art and his life and consider the myth that surrounded Hemingway, one at least partially created and maintained by Hemingway himself. The goal is that students will have the opportunity to reflect on how Hemingway the man—his own life experiences, social privileges, his psyche—shaped his novels, short stories, and the style of his writing. It’s also important to distinguish between the man Hemingway was in his personal life and the man many knew him to be as an artist and public figure. Many of his works are semi-autobiographical and one of the key elements the documentary returns to are the ways Hemingway used real places and people from his life to inform his writing.

Essential questions:

What is the impact of life experience on public perception?
How are artists personal lives shaped by their art, and vice versa?
What amount of control do we have over our public images, or 'avatars'?

Note to Educators: The clips in this resource depict sensitive topics and themes, including alcohol abuse and suicide. Consider collaborating with your students to create classroom guidelines for discussing these topics. These tips from the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association may be included in letters to parents sharing the sensitive conversation topics included.

Additional Resources for Trauma-Informed Teaching:

About the Author:

Julia E. Torres is a veteran language arts teacher and librarian in Denver Public schools. As a teacher/activist committed to education as a practice of freedom, her practice is grounded in the work of empowering students to use Language Arts to fuel resistance and positive social transformation. Julia has been awarded the 2020 NCTE Colorado Affiliate Teacher of Excellence award chosen as a 2020 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and serves educators as a member of the ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE) Board of Directors. Julia facilitates workshops and professional conversations about anti-bias/anti-racist education, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies in Language Arts, as well as digital literacy and librarianship. Her work has been featured in several publications including NCTE’s Council Chronicle, NPR, AlJazeera’s The Stream, PBS Education, KQED’s MindShift, NY Times Learning Network, The Chicago Tribune, ASCD’s Education Update, Rethinking Schools, School Library Journal, and many more.

Publisher

PBS Learning Media