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Ernest Hemingway's Advice To A Son

462 Words2 Pages

American novelist and poet Ernest Hemingway’s social commentary about parental pressures leading to mental illnesses, is an issue impacting youth today which demands our attention and greater community awareness. His illustrious poem Advice to a Son will be analysed, resulting in a comparison of other sources from pop culture which similarly complement and explore this confronting youth issue. The poem essentially highlights the influence and strain parents have on their children to reach unattainable expectations, sometimes leading to the diagnosis of a mental illness. Advice to a Son is about the dangers of parental demands, rather than ongoing encouragement. Hemingway could not have known the extent to which this topic would become in youth today. It is difficult to disregard the poem’s affective message about the risk factors associated with the influence of parents. Known as parental pressure; “it is when a parent puts too much strain on their child to force them to exceed. This issue is something that parents always notice other parents doing, but never notice that they are doing it themselves.” The condition was reinstated to …show more content…

He showed this literary technique by reiterating situations relating to World War I; which he was injured in. Repetition of the word “never” denotes the strong belief the parent has; striving for their child to excel at life by not making the same mistakes they made. This adverb is symbolic of the child who is silenced by the emphatic parent. The overuse of this word should serve to engage and teach us, a generation in need of a reminder, that we can’t go through life living up to the expectations of those around us, because the repeated word ‘never’ will seem to become ‘never’-ending. The “never” is relevant and comprehensive, as Hemingway summarizes both the rich details of one person’s experience, yet a whole view on humanity and youth

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In life difficulties may arise, but an “instructive eye” of a “tender parent” is a push needed in everyone’s life. Abigail Adams believed, when she wrote a letter to her son, that difficulties are needed to succeed. She offers a motherly hand to her son to not repent his voyage to France and continue down the path he is going. She uses forms of rhetoric like pathos, metaphors, and allusions to give her son a much needed push in his quest to success.

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Analyzing Parental Relationships Have you ever watched the show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” In modern education, younger generations seem to be surpassing their parents very quickly. In the poem “My Son Swears he has 102 Gallons of Water in His Body” by Naomi Shihab Nye, a son argues with his parents about what the reader can only assume to be homework in the form of a mathematical problem yet still deals with them despite the knowledge gap. In this poem, the conflict first appears whenever the child and his parents start arguing over a school problem in which he “did the problem [in school] and [his] teacher said [he] was right”

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The struggles presented between these two characters bring to light issues in human relationships that weigh into everyday life. Hemingway’s short story reveals to readers how relationships affect communication, decision

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On page 216, Ernest Hemingway writes many more than simply “one true sentence”. Henry’s monologue where he talks about his new view on life and loneliness, we can easily identify a new man. Before this point we see small almost irrelevant changes in behavior. After this deep and thought provoking paragraph, we know Henry has became much more mature man, as Catherine had tried to change, much more isolated man, except from his love of Catherine, and he finds a new view of courage and destruction. He now sees the priest’s wisdom and how right the priest was about love and happiness.

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Hemingway attended Oak Park and River Forest High School. There he began writing for the school newspaper. After graduation, he immediately went to work for the “Kansas City star”, where he honed his writing style. In the newspapers he learnt to write short and precise sentences, where unnecessary words such as adverbs and adjectives were often removed,

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