Jive-Ass Aficionado

Why Are We in Vietnam? and Hemingway’s Moral Code

Authors

  • James Plath Illinois Wesleyan University Author

Keywords:

Ernest Hemingway, Why Are We in Vietnam?, Hemingway's moral code, literary influence, war and masculinity in literature, narrative voice and style, twentieth-century American literature

Abstract

An analysis of the influence of Hemingway on Norman Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam? It is Mailer and D.J.’s adoption of the Hipster mind-set and way of talking that sets them apart from others, even more so than the hunter’s code of honor. And being an insider—someone who knows what the outside world can only imagine—is perhaps the most crucial element of aficion, as Hemingway detailed it.

Author Biography

  • James Plath, Illinois Wesleyan University

    James Plath is Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University and the author of Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway (Turner Publishing Co., 2009) and Remembering Ernest Hemingway (Ketch & Yawl Press, 1999). He was twice invited to Cuba to lecture on Hemingway, and has presented papers at Hemingway conferences in Pamplona, Paris, Sun Valley, and northern Michigan. His Hemingway criticism has been included in four anthologies, with the most recent being Hemingway and Africa, forthcoming from Camden House in 2011.

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Published

2026-03-25

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2010): Literary Warriors

Section

Articles