Sample Essay: Analysis Critic Scholary

Article Critique - The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway

Throughout the entirety of the story, the primary problem seemingly dwelled within David and Catherine themselves - betrayal, overflowing lust, immorality, lack of remorse and insensitivity. They were newlyweds, yes and sexual ideas that were triggered by Catherine were by no means peculiar, for from her perception, the warmth and thrills brought about by their unpredictable sex life would only strengthen their relationship; but it was as if the line between marriage and infidelity had been crossed. This was the problem that was going to haunt them like a disturbed ghost through the course of the story and the eventual fates that they separately traversed.

The significant symbolization of the power struggle that was stroked in the story was emphatically written by the writer Carl Eby, in 1999, who stated that his novel possessed some political implications. In a way, the victory of the writing of African novels by the character of David symbolized the victory of African civilization over colonialism (Eby 1999). And indeed it was a representation of such, for it first experienced tumultuous stages before finally prevailing. Colonialism on the other hand, in a way was represented by Catherine, whose experimentations, inhibitions and eventual repression of David’s writing led to a somewhat of an uprising. Albeit Eby’s point was not that clear, it did insinuate the significance of the symbols Hemingway used, for he did state the title as Hemingway’s Truth and Tribal Politics. Moreover, Eby added another significant facet to the criticism of the story, as he directly stated that the work was somewhat a reminiscing action of Hemingway, as some sort of diary. But most, his symbolizations of power struggle were never more apparent.

Another critic had perceived and critiqued the story from a different perspective, from a moralist perspective. And she had stated that the story was merely a story of the conflict of good and evil which was the implication of a hunger to find an identity. This assumption was never more apparent in the character of Catherine, as she had always toiled to make herself look masculine, dressing in a man’s clothes, cropping her hair and tanning her skin. And not only those intrapersonal qualities but also her racist suggestions, for at one time she had considered her life as more superior than those of the Africans, simply degrading and dehumanizing her fellow humans just because of their scarcity of knowledge and skin color (Tellefsen 2000). Furthermore, because of the worldly and evil desires of Catherine, she had also desired to create a new person out of her straight husband, as she quite successfully pushed him into having sexual relations with other women. Blythe Tellefsen had narrowed the key issue of the story as the outcome of Catherine’s futile efforts to become someone she was not. Catherine’s downfall surfaced when her husband David realized that he could no longer morally fathom the things his wife was trying to make him do, to yield to her demands and lose his own morality. The battle between good and evil culminated in David feeling love and fondness for the girl he and his wife has had sexual relations with, Marita, for the latter was only a victim of his wife’s evil, he theorized.

The perspectives of the critics, Eby and Tellefsen, were taken from a morally inclined one, because if not, then the actions of the characters in the story were all to be deemed right. The story was about the fading away of morality when it was needed and its recurrence when damage has been done and emotional scars had been inflicted, but nonetheless, change is still probable, as the characters David and Marita had shown. For as long as a man’s heart still pumps blood permeated by love, change is never too late, no sin is deemed too grave to be unforgivable and no past is to horrible to be  considered unforgettable.

Works Cited

Eby, Carl. “Hemingway’s Truth and Tribal Politics.” The Hemingway Review 19(1999): 24.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Garden of Eden. New York: Scribner Book Company, 1986.

Tellefsen, Blythe. “Rewriting the Self against the National Text: Ernest Hemingway’s the Garden

of Eden.” Papers on Language & Literature 36(2000): 58.