Metaphorical Illness in Hemingway's Works

Hemingway, through his characters, illustrates the many different genres and functions of disease. More than just inflictors of sadness and pain, disease and injury are part of the human condition. They are undeniable truths that give life to humanity, Hemingway’s characters, and Hemingway himself. As Hemingway writes in Death in the Afternoon, “…all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true storyteller who would keep that from you.” Part of Hemingway’s art is acknowledging that there is no true cure. Vitality and death, contentedness and pain, disease and survival all coexist in Hemingway’s writing as one: life.