Chapter 6, pgs. 156-172 Summary and Analysis

Hemingway was not interested in political loyalties. For him personal loyalties were important. In 1935 he became a supporter of the Communist line. He viewed the Spanish Civil War from this perspective. Hemingway claimed he supported the exploited working people and visited the front four times. This caused a rift in his relationship with Jon Dos Passos. Hemingway supported the party line and felt writers should fight fascism.

In spite of his beliefs in personal loyalties, he had a hard time sustaining friendships. In some ways, Hemingway was jealous of Dos Passos and they fought back and forth through their writing. In his marriages he kept leaving one wife for the next. He liked the attention of women. Hemingway was also an alcoholic. He began drinking as a teenager and started having liver problems in the 1930s. He...