The modernist author chosen to examine is Hemingway. This is due to a multitude of his stories relating to alienation, as well as his personal struggles that may have played a part in how frequently he wrote about it. Hemingway was born in Chicago in 1899. Eventually he left America against his fathers wishes to help the war efforts in WW1. While in Italy he was injured and spent a few months in a hospital before returning to America, leaving shortly after to pursue a career as an author in Paris. Hemingway married and remarried many times throughout these years, having a total of four wives. Hemingway eventually moved back to America, where he discovered his father killed himself. Hemingway continued his life as normal until he went on a safari trip to Africa, in which he survived two plane crashes. The rest of his life was in poor health due to these incidents. He ended his life in 1961.

Hemingway lived through a lot of alienation; constantly moving, not having long lasting relationships, and losing close ones. These events influenced many of Hemingway’s  works, including “A Very Short Story”, which is talked about on the next page.