Hemingway, Ernest - The Undefeated

University of Freiburg

Ernest Hemingway  “The Undefeated“

 by

 Matthias Storm

Table of Contents

I Introduction 1

II. General Aspects 1

1. Biography of Ernest Hemingway 1
2. The Story of “The Undefeated“ 2

III Main Part 4

1. The Main Theme 4
2. The Characterisation of Manuel Garcia 7
3. Pecularities of Hemingway’ s Style in “The Undefeated” 10
4. The Bullfight as Subject Matter 14
5. “The Undefeated“ as a Model for Hemingway’ s “The Old Man and the Sea“ 16

IV Results 17

V Appendix 18

1. References 18

I. Introduction

Stories are the oldest forms of literature. They found their first expression in the classical tales of the Old Testament. In recent times stories have taken a broader form than during the 18th and 19th century, when the literary form of the novel and poetry prevailed. The 20th century has discovered new possibilities and in connection with it: a new interpretation of human character.

This essay deals with theme and structure of Ernest Hemingway’ s “The Undefeated”. In particular it describes the story and the main theme. Furthermore it gives a characterisation of Manuel Garcia, illustrates the pecularities of Hemingway’ s style and introduces the bullfight as subject matter. It deals with “The Undefeated“ as a model for Hemingway’ s “The Old Man and the Sea“. The ideas of this essay are thematically linked. The second chapter looks at general aspects. It is an introduction into the biography of Ernest Hemingway and retells the story of “The Undefeated”. In the main part (third chapter) the themes mentioned above are examined. Results are drawn in the fourth chapter. After that in the appendix references are given.

II. General Aspects

1. Biography of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. The Great Lakes, where he spent much of his early life, provided the settings for his early stories. After he had graduated from High School he worked as a reporter for “The Kansas City Star” and volunteered for service in World War I. After the war he worked as a journalist in Chicago and Toronto. His first collection of stories “In Our Time” (1925) consisted of 15 tales and related the experiences of the young Nick Adams in the Great Lakes region. Hemingway’ s first novel “The Torrent of Spring” was published in 1926, quickly followed by the novel “The Sun also Rises”, which was also published in the same year.

In 1927 Hemingway published the collection “Men without Women” which contained “The Grand” and “The Undefeated”. It is worth mentioning that the story “The Undefeated” , however, was first published in “Quarterly”, a European magazine (Autumn- Winter 1925- 26)¹. Later on Ernest Hemingway became one of the most famous American writers of the 20th century and his later books , e.g. A Farewell to Arms (1929), Death in the Afternoon (1932), Winner Take Nothing (stories, 1933), The Green Hills of Africa (1935), To Have and Have Not (1937), The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), Across the River and Into the Trees (1950), The Old Man and the Sea (1952), A Moveable Feast (1964), Islands in the Stream (1970) have become very popular and many literary critiques and interpretations have been written about them except for “The Undefeated” which has had little attention in recent times.² It is therefore time to leave the well trodden path of reviewing well-known books and to describe what “The Undefeated” is about and to fathom its deeper meaning.

2. The Story of “The Undefeated“

The first scene takes place in Don Miguel Retana’ s office, the walls of which are framed by photographs and bullfighting posters. Manual has come to see Retana to ask for work. He looks pale and does not look well because he has just come out of hospital. Yet he wants to remain a bullfighter. Retana offers to put Manual in a bullfight for the following night, “a noctural”. This is a bullfight which takes place in the evening and is not as important as the afternoon bullfight. Manuel is not willing to substitute for anybody else. Retana, on the other hand, would like to substitute him for Larita not only because he could get Manual cheaply but also because he would like to help Manul and to give him a fresh start. Retana offers Manuel only two hundred and fifty pesetas which is a small sum of money compared to the payment made to Villalta. Manual, however, knows that he cannot refuse since he is purely and simply too old. In order to have a chance, Manuel feels he will need to have a good “picador”.

[...]

1 Cf. Smith, Paul, A Reader’ s Guide to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Boston (Massachusetts) 1989, p. 103.

2 Cf. article “Hemingway, Ernest Miller”, in: The Encyclopedia Americana. The International Reference Work Volume XIV, New York (New York) among others 1958, p. 88.