HUM 2020 Final Essay1 The American Dream and Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not

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Antonio Atkins Dr. Jason M. Gibson HUM 2020 8 December 2019 The American Dream and Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not The book To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway been viewed different by ev... ery reader. One reader stated that “[she] couldn’t decide if this was one of the most awful stories [she] read or one of the most brilliant.”1 She says she enjoy how the narrative “shifts from Harry as first-person narrator, allowing the reader to become intimately connected to the “have-nots”- Harry, his wife and family...to the third person omniscient, forcing us to observe at a distance the “haves”- the idle rich and educated who moor their yachts and slum at the bars with the locals.” 2 Another reader says that “The book has the feel of something that was thrown together”3. The other reader also says that the book was not a great piece of literature, stating that the book was “bleak”. Even though we may not all feel the same way about the book, we can all agree upon the fact that Ernest Hemingway’s book, To Have and Have Not, shows his view of the American Dream. In Hemingway’s evocation of the Dream, no party is held harmless, and the reader must sympathize with the most unlikely of characters while lamenting that, overall, the American Dream collapses upon itself. The story takes place in the Key West and Havana in the 1930’s, at the beginning of the Great Depression. The main character, Harry Morgan, American Dream story is unpleasant. Harry believes that the only way to survive and his support his family is by performing illegal acts. The illegal acts that Harry was doing was because of the “1933 revolution in Cuba against dictator Gerardo Machado, echoing 1930s leftism in the United States, that provides the background for Harry Morgan’s amoral strivings.”4 Harry was smuggling in booze and illegal immigrants between Cuba and Key West which leads to him losing an arm at the end of the novel. But he kind of have no option because he is a “Have Not”, and that hinders him from getting away from the illegal activities. Harry struggles shows that he has no morals and he does not care. He realizes “a man alone ain’t got no blood fucking chance.”5 Being that he is a strong man, he takes everything that gets thrown at him with no problem. He does that because he wants to do anything to provide for his family. Harry says, “I don't know who made the laws; But I know there ain't no law that you got to go hungry.”6 He does not like to see people starving, so 1 Johnson, Julie Christine. “Book Review: To Have and Have Not, Ernest Hemingway.” CHALK the SUN, 7 Jan. 2012, https://chalkthesun.org/2012/01/07/book-review-to-have-and-have-noternest-hemingway/. 2 Johnson, Julie Christine. “Book Review: To Have and Have Not, Ernest Hemingway.” CHALK the SUN, 7 Jan. 2012, https://chalkthesun.org/2012/01/07/book-review-to-have-and-have-noternest-hemingway/. 3 “To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway.” Coot's Reviews, 12 Sept. 2013, https://cootsreviews.com/2013/09/12/to-have-and-have-not-by-ernest-hemingway/. 4 Frederic J. Svoboda “The Great Themes in Hemingway” A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway, ed. Linda Wagner-Martin (Oxford 2000) 160 5 Frederic J. Svoboda “The Great Themes in Hemingway” A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway, ed. Linda Wagner-Martin (Oxford 2000) 160 6 Hemingway, Ernest. To Have and Have Not. New York, 1988. [Show More]

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