Yi'er Xie
Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350000, Fujian, China.
*Corresponding author: Yi'er Xie
Abstract
This paper mainly focuses on the positive attitude of two American writers, Ernest Miller Hemingway and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who belong to the Lost Generation and the Beat Generation, respectively. To be specific, this paper will explore how their works—A Clean, Well-Lighted Place and “The World Is a Beautiful Place”—embody a tendency of resilience and positivity amid a chaotic world with existential crises. Though both are positive, there are still some differences between the two writers. A comparison between them and their inclinations will be made to find out the similarities and differences between the positive attitudes in American literature after the two world wars. Contributing factors will be explored so as to see how the chaotic and disordered societies, which normally bring about negative and rebellious ideas at that time, ultimately lead to their positive attitudes respectively. The profound implication of the word “positive,” which contains more complex meanings than it literally does, will also be taken into consideration.
References
Chang, Y. (2008). A survey of American literature (3rd ed.). Nankai University Press.
Farooqui, R. (2021). An analysis of Santiago’s character in Hemingway’s The old man and the sea: A saga of indomitable human spirit. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, 4(5), 184-188.
https://doi.org/10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.5.20
Moddelmog, D. A., & del Gizzo, S. (2013). Ernest Hemingway in context. Cambridge University Press.
Wang, X. (2025). The French writing of ‘the lost generation’—Hemingway and Fitzgerald as an example. Journal of Mudanjiang University, 34(1), 71-78.
https://doi.org/10.15907/j.cnki.23-1450.2025.01.009
Wang, Y. (2014). A study of evolution of American war novels [PhD thesis, Jilin University].
Xiang, L. (2010). Post-war American intellectuals and public space: A case study of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Comparative Literature: East & West, 12(1), 79-88.
https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2010.12015381
Zheng, Y. (2017). Poetic idea and practice of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Foreign Languages and Cultures, 2, 1-8.
https://doi.org/10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2017.02.001
Zhong, Y. (2024). Elegance under the waves: Life outlook implied in The old man and the sea. Education Journal, 7(2), 144-149. https://doi.org/10.31058/J.EDU.2023.72017
How to cite this paper
The Positive Attitude in Post-war American Literature: A Comparison Between Hemingway and Ferlinghetti
How to cite this paper: Yi’er Xie. (2025) The Positive Attitude in Post-war American Literature: A Comparison Between Hemingway and Ferlinghetti. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 9(7), 1314-1318.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.07.012