I love Hemingway, but I certainly haven’t read his entire catalog. To Have and Have Not was one of those novels that slipped under my radar, until, of course, I started doing research for the Florida Trip. Since I always associated Hemingway with Key West, I was surprised to learn that he did very little writing while in the state of Florida. In fact, this is perhaps the only novel that was written mostly in the state, and it’s his only novel that takes place in the United States.
The older I get, the more I realize that my life is becoming further and further removed from the Hemingway Hero. Yes, I want to be that guy that drinks too much, fights, kills all sorts of animals, smokes, ravages women, fights some more, and mistreats his wife, but alas, my life decisions prevent it. Perhaps that’s the mystique of the Hemingway Hero. It’s every man’s dream to live like Harry Morgan, perhaps in the same way that all women want to be Martha Stewart. (All women want to be Martha Stewart, no?)
“That night I was sitting in the living room smoking a cigar and drinking a whiskey and listening to Gracie Allen on the radio.”
The Florida influences are obvious in this novel, but it’s also clear that Hemingway’s heart was with Cuba. As Harry reluctantly turns to a life of smuggling in order to survive (he was a “have” who became a “have not” in a twist of fate brought upon by another “have”), we see that Cuba is the paradise of the novel. But even paradise has its price, and the a revolution serves as an appropriate backdrop for the action.
“Bacardi.”
In terms of manliness, this book has it all: a protagonist who’s always ready for a fight (even when his arm is shot off), a domesticated hooker, a first mate with a rum obsession, a Chinese gangster named Mr. Chin, one of the most depressing yet tantalizing sex scenes in the course of human history, and lots of talk about boats.
And of course, it has a Hemingway Hero.
“Him, like he was, snotty and strong and quick, and like some kind of expensive animal. It would always get me just to watch him move. I was so lucky all that time to have him. His luck went bad first in Cuba. Then it kept right worse and worse until a Cuban killed him.”
The director of the film adaptation said that Hemingway admitted To Have and Have Not was his worst published novel, “a bunch of junk.”
And who am I to argue with Ernest Hemingway.
Reading the book, though, inspired me to search my teaching archives. The last time I taught Hemingway was nearly 14 years ago when we covered The Old Man and the Sea in my pre-AP/IB English 10 class. Most of my notes make no sense to me, but I did find the following quote, which I probably wrote on the board and used as a foundation for a 1000-word essay assignment: “A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.” I bet my students loved that one.
“He started to walk off down the dock looking longer than a day without breakfast. Then he turned and came back.”
biciclettalento 